Cibus Esculentus Madoka Magica
by SeaRover1986
Summary: An alternate universe, in which girls are instantly fattened up as part of their contracts, in order to feed flesh-eating monsters called Esurientes.
1. Apéritif

Credit to an anonymous deviantArt member I had commissioned for.

If anyone's interested, I have recently commissioned for a translation of the mobage scenario The Hollow Little Mermaid. Be sure to PM me if you'd like a copy of that.

If any of you are also into Lucky Star, be sure to check out my continuation of someone else's fic Unlucky Black Holes, where various LS girls are described if they were to become Witches after abbreviated lives as Puellae Magi.

I've also got a sub-gallery on dA of the five mains as they'd appear in this fic, along with a donation pool for anyone else any of you might be interested in seeing so big and fat. Look for DMXrated if you'd like to check them out or donate any points.

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

* * *

 **Chapter 1: Apéritif**

It must have been a dream.

When Madoka woke up, the sun dazzled in her face, but something felt unpleasant. It was so strong, at first she thought it was an illness, but nothing was physically wrong with her. It must have been something carrying over from a nightmare she couldn't remember.

Could one call in sick from school because they felt bad emotionally?

She struggled to get up and dithered while getting dressed, trying to recall the dream to no avail.

Downstairs, their brand new kitchen practically sparkled in the sunlight, thanks to the massive sheet glass windows.

Tomohisa stood at the sink, preparing a rich breakfast. Little Tatsuya bounced up and down next to him, trying to see over the edge of the worktop and help out. Her mother likely was still in bed, to her disapointment. She would have liked a few tips on getting through the day on poor sleep, which her mother had experience with.

Turned out she didn't need it. Breakfast was puffy white congee in a lacquered bowl, a few pickles on a plate, a little pyramid of crispy tofu cubes and a salty broiled mackerel. After wolfing this down, she felt a lot better.

Junko appeared sleep drunk near the end of breakfast. As she walked to her seat, she gently flicked one of her twin tails.

"Those look awfully good on you, Madoka chan," she said, grinning. "I used to wear my hair like that when I was a girl, at least for a while."

"Does that mean I'm going to be like you when I grow up?"

Junko laughed, as if she didn't really think that she deserved it.

"If you want to, I'm sure," she said. "But I know you can do better."

Tomohisa had prepared her lunchbox and she stuck it in her backpack. Before she went, she hugged Junko and Tomohisa and Tatsuya goodbye.

Junko held out her hand, and Madoka high fived her. She tied on her shoes and hurried down to street level.

It was getting towards summer, warm enough that she thought about taking her jacket off. The sun was bright enough that almost everything hurt to look at. The poplars were in leaf and their buds spread a heavy scent, almost like honey.

She usually met up with Sayaka and Hitomi outside the block where Sayaka lived, but she slowed down when she saw a cat lying on a garden wall. It was barely more than a kitten – perhaps the cat equivalent of her own age. Its fur was completely charcoal grey. Eyes closed and curled up with its paw over its nose, it soaked up the sun.

She paused to look at it. Hitomi and Sayaka wouldn't mind waiting for her for another minute, they had plenty of time. The cat must be new, she couldn't remember seeing a kitten here on the street before.

Just as she reached out to pet it, the cat sprung to life. Tail lashing accompanied a growl rather savage for such a small creature.

She couldn't have scared it, she hadn't even touched it, but it had been spooked by something.

Madoka looked around for the source, but the blocks were quiet all around. Most people had already left for work, and there were no dogs or anything else.

Oh well, cats did were weird sometimes sometimes. That was why people used to believe that they could see ghosts, wasn't it? They would bolt from things that humans couldn't see.

Then there was a shadow over her, as if the sky had clouded over all of a sudden.

Madoka pulled her jacket tight in case it would start raining. She glanced up.

The sun was still shone, but it was dull, as if she was seeing it through a tinted glass pane. She could look straight at it. A chilly wind slunk in under her jacket and made the skin on her legs prickle up under her skirt. Could it be some sort of storm coming? There were no clouds, it was just the sky that had grown darker, but she couldn't figure out what else it might be. Would she be better off running to school or just taking cover?

The ground trembled. Her first thought was an earthqueak, but it seemed to come from behind.

She turned around.

Something huge and dark approached along the empty road, dragging shadow with it. It was shaped like a dark gray bear, maybe, but there was something wrong with its head. Sometimes it went on all four and seemed as big as a truck, sometimes it went upright and reached to the roof of the houses. Only its footsteps made a sound.

The cat spun around and leapt down the other side of the wall. That flicker of movement made her able to act again. She glanced down the road towards school – she could run, the creature wasn't moving fast. If she got to the police office, they'd be able to take care of it or at least barricade the door against it.

The cat was still in the garden. If she ran now, she would leave it here. Cats were good at hiding, weren't they? Especially a small cat like that would be able to squeeze into any crack and be safe.

She still couldn't do it.

She looked through the bars of the gate. At first she couldn't make out the cat in the strange dusk –perhaps it was safe– but it had crawled in under a bush. Only its little face and forepaws poked out from under the sparse leaves.

"Come _on!_ " Madoka half shouted, half whispered.

The cat didn't react, as if it hadn't heard.

Madoka tried the gate. It was unlocked and she hurried inside. The footsteps behind got closer, but she was sure she could make it in time.

" _Here_ , kitty!"

As she got closer, the kitten backed up until it was pressed against the wall.

"Look, little one, I'm not dangerous, just stay there, I'm going to save you..." She kept talking to it in a soothing voice, until she was close enough to make a grab for it. The cat scurried away.

She felt the heavy tearing sound through the soles of her feet. Startled, she turned.

The creature had torn the gate off its hinges, leaving it twisted on the lawn. Its large fore paw batted a chunk of white painted wood from the corner of the house as it turned towards her. It had no fur, only glistening grey skin, and where the head should have been there was only a mouth barbed with white fangs. It opened and closed, but still it made no sound.

It didn't have any eyes. Perhaps it hadn't seen her. Her gaze darted right and left, but there was nowhere to run. The garden wall was tall behind her, and the kitten squeezed its belly against the ground, hissing without pause. Madoka picked it up and pressed it to her chest. The cat was too scared to try to get free. She closed her eyes and waited.

The little body was warm against hers.

"No," she said. Her voice sounded firm. "I won't let it do that."

Her eyes flew open.

On the opposite garden wall sat a small animal, outlined against the greyness of the sky. She saw it so clearly, as if it were more important than the monster. It was slender and about the size of a cat. Its ears were long flaps that fluttered in the wind.

There was a flash from above. Something spun down towards her, and then the monster was stretched out on the lawn. Its back heaved as if it were gasping, but it was still silent. Riddled with bullet holes, blood the color of rotten eggs oozed out.

Madoka's ears rang.

Someone wheeled out of the sky and landed on the lawn almost silently. It was a woman – no, a girl, perhaps under eighteen. She was heavy: round arms, her short white dress folding under rolls of fat when she crouched up, puffy thighs and legs swelling inside her thin stockings. Straight midnight hair streamed around a face as plump as a baby's. Madoka forced herself to look away.

"Are you injured?" the girl said. Her voice was nearly neutral.

When Madoka didn't respond, the stranger looked her over. Her gaze stopped on the cat.

"Don't ever be a _hero_ ," she said.

She pronounced the last word as if it was an insult.

The monster's corpse gave a shiver and turned into bright light. It shot into the sky with an explosion that blinded Madoka even though she squeezed her eyes closed. When she could see again, both the monster and the girl were gone.

The cat leapt onto its old spot on the sun warm wall and started licking itself.

* * *

On her way to Sayaka's block, she'd almost managed to convince herself that she'd dreamt it. It couldn't have been real – but she had stinging claw marks on her hands and grass stains on her socks.

Her friends had already set out, so she had to rush to catch up. Running felt good, she burned the adrenaline out of her body. The others turned around when they heard her shoes clattering on the pavement.

"We were starting to think you weren't showing up." Hitomi, enviably beautiful with her waves of green tinged hair, looked closer at her. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine." When she blinked, she could still see the after image of the explosion.

Sayaka, tall and almost boyish looking with her short turquoise hair, put a sinewy arm around Madoka's shoulder. "Did some bastard... you know, try anything?"

She sounded so concerned, Madoka had to say something. "Oh, no. I just tripped and hurt myself a bit." Hopefully, they'd see her scratches.

They got to the boxy white complex of Mitakihara High in good time and sat down at their desks. One of Madoka's bows had started to come loose –when she hadn't noticed it, when the monster was chasing her–, and she undid it and tied it back on.

Saotome -sensei stomped inside, clearly in a bad mood.

"Class, I have something of the greatest importance to tell you," she began.

After she had expressed the supreme importance for guys not to complain about the way a woman fries her eggs, she went to the classroom door.

"Also, before we begin the lesson, I want you to welcome our new transfer student, Akemi Homura ." She lowered her voice, just a fraction. "Please be nice to her."

A girl walked inside and stopped behind the teacher's desk. She was the girl who had saved Madoka. She was wearing a uniform now, a white blazer and plaid skirt, but there was no mistaking that body, or that hair. She glared at the class like a soldier in an enemy camp.

Madoka realized that she was staring and looked down at her desk. As Homura walked along the aisle, Madoka heard some boys behind her talking.

"Wonder if they gave her an extra reinforced uniform or what," said one boy.

Madoka glanced across the class at Homura, as if she could show her that at least she wasn't like that.

Their eyes met.

* * *

When the first class ended, Madoka was about to go and see if she could talk to Homura somewhere private, but a teacher whose name she didn't know poked his head through the door.

"Kaname- chan, you are the Health Officer, aren't you? One of my students needs taking to the infirmary. It's nothing serious, hopefully, but she _has_ passed out."

Madoka followed him into Room A5, a bit tentatively. She hadn't had any classes in here yet. The students were in their third year and made her feel even more small and slender than usual.

"Get a gurney from that storage closet," the teacher said, giving her the key.

Madoka unfolded a gurney that was propped up against the closet wall, then turned around to look at the student who lay slumped next to her desk. It was a girl, very fat, her uniform tight like a thin rind around her swelling body. There didn't seem to be anything outwardly wrong with her. Her rich golden blond ringlets spread across the linoleum floor. A few of her classmates stood around her, others milled towards the door.

"Okay, give me a..." The teacher faltered, then turned to one of the tallest boys. "Shuichi kun, you help me give her a lift."

The boy grabbed the girl's ankles, and the teacher grabbed her under her arms. Together, they lifted her onto the gurney, the boy groaning exaggeratedly. Madoka watched, apparently forgotten.

"Excellent," the teacher said, wiping his hands on his trousers. "Kaname- chan, help me take her to the infirmary."

That part was easy, all Madoka had to do was to walk behind and keep a hand on the gurney. As they walked, she looked at the girl. Her sleeves were tight around her round upper arms, her breasts were as big as those of an adult woman. Madoka had seen fat teenagers before, but this particular kind of dense obesity reminded her of that Homura girl. As they walked, the girl murmured, and her eyes moved under her eyelids, but she didn't wake up.

"Do you think she'll be all right, sensei?" Madoka said.

The teacher kept pulling the gurney, the small wheels making a slick noise on the floor. "I'm sure. The nurse will probably just tell her to exercise more. I mean, look at her."

They left the girl with the nurse. When Madoka came out of the infirmary, Sayaka was waiting for her.

"Did you see her?" Madoka said.

Sayaka nodded. They walked towards the sunny glass door that led the roof. The corridor was deserted, echoing around them.

"It's weird, isn't it?" Madoka said. "Meeting two girls who look... um, like that... on the same day."

Sayaka barked a laugh. "Maybe it's an epidemic. Night of the XXL Girls! You'll be next, you've been close to Patient Zero."

But her laugh wasn't happy, and it soon died away.

"Are you okay, Sayaka?"

All expression faded from Sayaka's face.

"I'm fine," she said. She didn't sound it.

"It's about Kamijo- kun, isn't it?"

Sayaka turned her face away.

"He's going to recover," she said. "But... the doctors told him he's never going to be able to play again. It's his hands, you know?" She shuckled, but without humour. "He can't feel anything with them, he won't be able to control the strings or the bow..."

Madoka closed her eyes for a moment. She tried to imagine having that taken away from herself, but she'd never been that good at anything.

Something made her eyes fly open. Hadn't there been bright sunlight a moment ago? The sky outside was dour, as if there was going to be a thunderstorm.

Sayaka reached for the handle.

"No!" Madoka grabbed her arm. "Get away from there!"

She dragged Sayaka backward, breaking into a run.

"Madoka, what the—" Sayaka tried to shake her had off, but then the sound of breaking glass and claws grating through concrete filled the corridor. No roaring, no speaking.

It was Sayaka with her longer legs who dragged Madoka now.

They reached the teal- painted door to the infirmary. Sayaka tore at the handle, but it slipped in her hand. The door wouldn't be enough, even if they managed to get inside and lock it, and the girl was still in there. There might be other patients too.

The door opened inwards. Behind it stood the blonde girl, upright and apparently recovered.

Something was odd about her, but Madoka hardly had time to look at her.

"Get in there and lock the door," the girl said in a low voice. "I'll handle it."

She held... a gun. An old-fashioned western gun covered in white enamel and flower patterns.

Madoka must have frozen, because Sayaka dragged her inside the infirmary hallway.

"We need to get help!" Sayaka muttered. "There's a phone in the waiting lounge..."

Madoka stayed by the small glass window in the door. The blonde girl positioned herself in the corridor, both hands wrapped around the butt of her gun. She looked small as a toddler before the thing, the creature. It was nearly black, with furry wings and long pointy ears, so large it had to crawl to fit in the corridor. There were claws at the end of its wings, scraping the edges of the ceiling. The face was something she would have nightmares about.

The girl didn't seem perturbed. As she fired her gun, white ribbons unfurled across the corridor and formed a web, as if a giant spider had spun it in an instant. The being slashed at the ribbons, but Madoka heard the gun go off once, twice.

" _Tiro finale!_ " the girl called.

The being's head whipped back, mouth open and showing long fangs. Madoka felt the impact when it crashed to the floor, white fluid seeping from the wounds. Then came the familiar burst of light. This time she knew to close her eyes.

The girl opened the door. Both of them got out into the corridor, Sayaka still rubbing her eyes.

"Thank you for saving us!" Madoka drew a long shaky breath. "What was... _that_?"

Madoka took a closer look at the girl. She didn't wearher uniform, but a short, embroidered yellow dress, with a corset encasing her thick waist and pushing her breasts up. Had she changed into new clothes in the infirmary? That would be the _least_ odd thing to happen today.

"No need to thank me," the girl said, holstering her gun. "That thing? An Esuriens."

Madoka shook her head. If this was a dream, it felt like she should have woken up by now.

There was another flash of light, causing Sayaka to swear, and when Madoka looked up again, the girl was back in her school uniform. The gun was nowhere to be seen.

"You have to excuse me," the girl said. "My name is Tomoe Mami. And you...?"

"Kaname Madoka." The girl had explained nothing at all. Madoka's brain went for the first question that made any sense in the regular world. "Are you okay? Because I brought you to the infirmary... you'd passed out in class..."

"Oh, I'm fine now." Mami gave a small smile. "My power is regeneration, after all. Either way, it was only my blood sugar crashing. But you helped me... I am in your debt."

"No... no." Sayaka straightened up. "Not that I'm not grateful, but... you're going to have to start from the beginning. Monsters, shapeshifting clothes, you having a gun for some reason. What's going on here?"

Mami sighed. "Please, come with me."

They stepped over the splinters of the ruined glass door and out on the roof. Madoka drew a deep breath of the clean air. In the corridor it had felt like she could still smell the monster, even though its body and even its blood were gone.

The sunlight was bright again, and the chill gone.

Mami stretched. Her fat wasn't loose or flabby, it was a tight thick coat under her skin. Her upper arms were massive. It was easy to imagine that there were strong muscles underneath, even though the fat rounded their outlines.

"I assume you will have to go back to class soon, so I'll be brief," she said. "There are beings called Esurientes, 'the hungry ones'. They live off humans. The creature you saw wasn't fully grown, that's why it was fairly easy to take out."

"That thing?" Sayaka called out. "It barely fit in the corridor!"

Mami went on, disregarding her. "We fight them."

Madoka shuddered against her will. She scanned the city horizon –it felt like one of the Esurientes could swoop on them at any moment– but nothing moved.

She froze up. On the railing sat a small animal, the same as before: a white -furred animal with long sweeping ears and a fox's plume tail. It sat gracefully, tail wrapped around its body. Its eyes were reddish pink like those of a white rabbit.

"What's that?" she said.

Mami didn't hear her while listening to Sayaka.

"'We'? So there are more people like you?" asked the teal-haired girl.

Mami's great golden ringlets swung as she nodded. "Yes, there are. We are called Cibi."

"Chibi?" Madoka said.

Mami didn't act as if she'd heard. It was the usual way: people didn't find her worthy of their attention.

"Are there many of... those Esurientes?" Sayaka asked. She clutched her arms, as if she was cold.

"More than you can imagine."

It was a new voice, vaguely male. The catlike animal was walking up to them.

Mami nodded towards it. "This is Kyubey," she said, as if introducing a class prefect. "He is the one who makes contracts with girls and lets them become Cibi."

Sayaka shook her head, as if she tried to get the animal's voice out of her ears. Madoka looked closer at it – at Kyubey. It actually had cat ears, small and pointy. What she had thought were its ears were floating ribbons of white hair growing out of the real ones. Around each ribbon floated a thin hoop of gold, like a woman's big earring. How did those not fall off? As if anything that happened today made any sense.

The rings and the ring shaped design on its back made it look civilised, and if you looked at its face you could see that it wasn't an animal.

"If there are so many, why don't we see them?" Sayaka said. She'd drawn herself up and spoke to Mami, not to Kyubey.

"They do not let themselves be seen, except by their intended prey," Kyubey replied. "For this, they use a barrier that mirrors but does not outright overlap with this dimension, where they separate their prey to eat undisturbed."

Perhaps he wasn't happy about being ignored.

Mami nodded, eyes closed for a moment. "To everyone else, those who get eaten have just disappeared. If you hear on the news about a disappearance, it is often the Esurientes. Not always, but often."

"But that's horrible!" Madoka blurted out.

The three of them turned their heads towards her. Of course she'd end up saying something so inane and pointless.

Kyubey curled up sinuously. "If that is so horrible, I will allow you to combat them. The world will always need more. All you need to do is tell me your wish. I will grant it, and in return, you will become a Cibus."

"Really?" Sayaka said. "We can join, just like that?"

"He is not wrong," Mami said. "He is passing over some information, though. If you become a Cibus, you will have to become like this."

She gestured down at her body, all thick curves that made her school uniform look indecently small. Then this must mean that Homura was a Cibus, too.

Mami went on, probably to break the silence.

"The... change... greatly increases our muscle mass, as well. The fat is probably there as an outer layer, to cushion our muscles. Look."

She bent down and picked up a metal bar that had been part of the door. She got a grip on it, and her heavy shoulders tensed as she bent it. She stopped after bending it into a weak obtuse angle, but Madoka's skinny arms wouldn't have been able to bend it at all.

"Do you ever regret choosing it?" Sayaka said.

Mami lowered her head.

"No," she said, "but my case was rather extreme... excuse me, I didn't catch your name."

"Miki Sayaka."

"Miki-san, you should not use my case as evidence when deciding what you want to do." She gave a slight smile. "But if either of you does join, I will be happy to become your tutor."

At that point, the bell rang, loud out here. Mami looked around.

"If you're interested, how about I see you by the monkey bars after school?" she said. "You don't need to decide yet, but we can talk about it some more."

When they came through the classroom door, Madoka caught a glimpse of Homura. She looked at her and Sayaka without saying anything.

* * *

How could one focus on their lessons when they had found out something like that? Madoka spent the rest of the day closed up in herself and hardly ever put her hand up for questions, even when she knew the answer. The teachers didn't seem to notice. She'd never been good or bad enough for them to care much about her.

Sometimes, her gaze moved over to Homura, a silent and focused figure at her desk. Madoka poked at one of her scratches. It had healed to a rough red line.

She didn't want to look like Mami... or Homura for that matter. Her weight was one of the things she liked about her body. At the same time, no boys –or girls, for that matter– had ever shown interest in her, and she doubted that they would in the future.

Did it matter so much what she looked like, if she was never going to get married?

Both Homura and Mami had saved her life today, and Sayaka's as well. Kyubey had said that there were many Esurientes and many victims. He hadn't given any figures, but she imagined hundreds at least. Could she justify letting them die just because she was afraid of getting fat?

Her gaze slid to Sayaka, who sat with her pen to the paper without moving it, teal hair flopped forward over her face. She must be thinking about it, too.

* * *

When the bell rang after the last lesson, Madoka had made up her mind.

She hurried out in the sea of other students, eager to ask Sayaka whether she was heading down to the monkey bars as well, but she could hardly talk about it with everyone else around. All she could do was to keep walking and see whether Sayaka went the same way.

She didn't see Homura in the crowd, but she suspected that she watched her.

* * *

 **Note:** Technically, Esurientes are able to feed on any animals they come across. It does make sense that Mami specifies humans, though, because this story does take place in a city, where humans happen to be the most abundant species to feed on. Also, it _would_ have helped if the new manga installment Wraith Arc had already been completed and translated, if mainly as a basis for me and the person I commissioned to form a better explanation together regarding how Esurientes go unnoticed by most people despite their sheer population worldwide.


	2. Entrée

**Chapter 2: Entrée**

With Sayaka, she walked down to where Mami waited in the blinding sunlight. The tarmac plain between them and Mami grew into a desert. When she was younger, she had read a nature book where it said that if wild horses were faced with a brushfire, their instinct was to run head first into it. If you tried to outrun it, the wind would always catch up with you. Safety lay on the other side.

Mami raised a raised hand and gave a minuscule smile. Madoka glanced up. Kyubey hung from one of the top bars in his long slender paws, dangling back and forth.

"We can walk a bit, if you want," Mami said.

Silence built up between them, with no sound other than the grit crunching under their shoes. Mami took out a little box of mints and chewed one, then offered one to each of them. That was good, she was keeping her blood sugar up.

Madoka was on the verge of saying something, while she still could talk, but Sayaka came to her rescue.

"So... there are many of those Esurientes, then?"

Madoka listened. She couldn't hear anything other than their footsteps, but she was certain that Kyubey followed them. He had the paws of a cat; they would be just as silent.

Mami nodded. "Probably several hundred..."

Madoka breathed out. "Wow, could be worse, I guess."

"... here in Mitakihara alone." Mami glanced at them. Her eyes were golden brown and seemed soft, like the rest of her. "Miki-san, Kaname-san, you both seem brave, but I cannot in good conscience ask you to join me unless you are positive that you want to. I... don't want to lead you into danger."

Madoka spoke up. "But if they are so dangerous, that's more reason to fight them, not less!"

Sayaka stared at her – so she'd made a fool of herself again. But the look on Sayaka's face wasn't embarrassment, just shock.

"Do you want to join her, Madoka?" she said.

If Sayaka hadn't said it, perhaps Madoka wouldn't have had the courage, but now she nodded.

"Yes. Yes, I want to." Her voice cracked on the words.

"Are you certain?" Mami said. "You may want to think long and hard about it. Perhaps you should accompany me to a few battles and observe them first."

Before Madoka could say it again, Kyubey stood on the road in front of them. He didn't appear out of nowhere. It was as if he'd been there all along and she just hadn't seen him.

"Now you need to make your wish," he said, "and I will make you a Cibus."

She hadn't thought up a wish yet. Madoka felt like she would totter. Mami smiled at her as if to calm her, but it pass as quickly as blinking.

"I'll explain to you what happens next," she said. "You tell Kyubey your wish, and he will turn you into a Cibus. You will get the outfit, and a weapon that is appropriate to you. From then on, you will be able to change into your Cibus identity at will. Also, you will be able to communicate with me telepathically. It will help us coordinate our attacks."

"Really?" Madoka said.

A word showed up in her brain. It sounded like the voice of her own thoughts, but it came from outside: _Really._

Madoka looked up at Mami again. Mami nodded.

Sayaka swallowed, as if she'd been trying to speak for a long time. "So, you're really gonna do it?

But..." She looked at Mami and trailed off.

Madoka stood still, not knowing what to do. Mami came to her aid.

"We should probably be sitting down, discussing something as important as this," she said.

She led the way to a scuffed park bench standing forgotten near the bleachers. Madoka sat down, her knees grateful for the relief. Mami turned to Sayaka, who had remained standing.

"Do you not want to join, Miki-san?" she asked.

Sayaka swallowed, a sharp movement. "I don't know, Mami senpai. Not yet."

"Do you want to leave?" Mami's voice was softer.

"No!" Sayaka breathed out. "It doesn't matter... I'm not leaving Madoka at a time like this."

She sat down next to them.

"Now, Madoka," Kyubey said. "What is your wish?"

Madoka's gaze slid away across the bright green fields beyond the school grounds. She shuddered when she saw the distant line of forest, as if an Esuriens might rise from it any moment – but if she backed out now, she would have to fear that for the rest of her life.

"I want to protect other people," she said and heard her voice sound stronger.

Mami shook her head.

"But you will be doing that no matter what your wish is, Kaname-san," she said. "You have to wish for something that wouldn't come true anyway."

Madoka's cheeks flushes. She looked along the fields again, as if the answer was written somewhere. She scratched the scab over one of her wounds, and the feeling of the little cat in her arms came back to her.

"I want to give people hope," she said.

Kyubey's little cat mouth didn't change, of course, but he sounded pleased when he spoke:

"Kaname Madoka, your wish has come true."

Had her eyelids flickered down? It was dusky, and she had the sudden idea that Sayaka and Mami weren't there any more. She wouldn't be able to control her voice if she called for them now.

She tried reaching out, but her arms felt stiff and wrong, like in a fever dream.

There was a strange taste deep in her mouth and an explosion of light that seemed to cling to her skin. It faded.

Madoka looked down at herself. She now wore a dress in a pink colour that probably matched her hair. It wasn't identical to Mami's Cibus dress, it had a wide short skirt and so many bows it looked like a cake, but it was in a similar style, vaguely western. Underneath it, her body had changed.

She had breasts, heavy under the lacy neckline of the dress, and her thighs were welling out below the skirt like white bags of fluid. Her arms felt heavy when she moved them.

She got to her feet. Her body didn't feel sick or weak, though she did reel because it was so different to her old one.

Sayaka stared at her. She had known what would happen, and still she stared.

"It's okay," Madoka said. Even her voice had changed.

Sayaka walked her back to her apartment. All the way home, Madoka kept her eyes on the ground, as if no one would recognise her as long as she didn't look at them. She didn't remember much of the walk.

She did remember the things Sayaka said to cheer her up. "You actually look pretty good like that, Madoka chan. I mean, if you were a dude, I wouldn't mind going out with you." Or:

"You're gonna kill all those human eating monstrosities now. Everyone who laughs at you now is going to thank you on their knees after you save their life."

"I will contact you when I can take you out hunting," said Mami. But perhaps she had already left by then, and those words only came through the telepathic link.

At one point, Madoka looked up and saw Homura standing by the side of the road, looking at her.

As she ran up the silent shadowy staircase, she got dizzy with lack of oxygen. She had to stop and grab the handrail as she tried to breathe, but the lock of one of the apartment doors clicked.

She had to run or they would see her.

She reached her flat. As she came into the hallway, she heard Tomohisa's voice.

"Yo, Madoka chan! How's your day been?"

She ran into her room and locked the door, as if she would be able to hide in there forever.

She drew the blinds and threw off her Cibus outfit on the bed. A golden bow and a quiver of arrows clattered next to the dress. She tried not to look at her body. Her arms and shoulders were just a cream coloured blur that moved things about. Apart from their width, there wasn't that much of a difference.

Mami had never told her how to change back – but the moment she thought about it, it was as if a new compartment in her mind had lit up. She reached into it, and the light came over her. This time, her eyes were used to it, because it didn't completely blind her. She saw it form a circle of patterns and writing on the floor around her, like in a fantasy anime, before shrinking and fading.

She looked down at her body, but it was still changed. Her breasts sagged, low. Her elbows and knees were just folds in the flab, her sides were pink rolls down past her hips.

Her school uniform lay on her quilt where she'd put the Cibus dress. She picked it up. She could barely even get her hand through the sleeve.

Re fit it somehow? Junko had a sewing machine that had belonged to grandma. Madoka had learnt how to use a sewing machine in shop class. She didn't know how to alter a piece of clothing. She didn't have the right fabrics.

She put on her pajamas –the waistband was too tight, but it had to do– and crept into bed. She hugged Pan chan tight against her, so that it felt like she had something small that still loved her no matter what.

She got out of eating dinner by pretending that she wasn't feeling well. Junko came to see how she was doing, but the room was dark enough to hide anything unusual from her.

Eventually, she fell asleep, and dreamed that she was melting.

* * *

The next morning, she put on an old track suit that just barely fit her, and hid it under her winter coat. She meant to see the school intendent before the class started, and ask for a new uniform.

On the way to school, Hitomi glanced at her, but didn't say anything. Sayaka kept between her and Hitomi all the time. Madoka wanted to talk to her, but of course they couldn't while Hitomi was around.

The school intendent, Hibikiya Toshiko, was a quiet woman, lean as though her body had been dried out, with a skinny bun of grey hair. She didn't make any comments, she just glanced at Madoka while she picked out the largest and loosest uniform from the racks.

It got a little better after that. During the school day, people stared at her, and a group of boys always laughed when she walked past –a coarse sound–, but nobody asked her about it. Not her classmates, not the teachers. Perhaps they'd never really looked at her, then. Not even Hitomi said anything.

During lunch break, a strange thought came into her head. It took a moment before she recognised it as Mami's telepathy.

 _Kaname-san? If you want, we can go hunting after school._

She'd almost forgotten her new purpose, what with everything else. She could have almost cried with gratitude.

After the last class, she thought about telling Sayaka and perhaps asking her whether she wanted to come along, but Sayaka had already left.

* * *

"I brought you some more CDs," Sayaka said, dumping her backpack by Kyosuke's bed and digging in it for the little rustling plastic bag from the CD Stop.

The hospital ward was white and sunny and silent, and Kyosuke lay stretched out on his back, his delicate profile outlined against the blue sky in the window. His pale skin was flawless, his light brown hair was almost white where the streaks of sun hit it.

"I got you the one with Székely that you didn't have, and one with Suwanai..."

She got the CD cases out and hurried to the music player in the window. One of Kyosuke's hands lay on top of the white quilt. She didn't look away from them any more. The scars snaked up the back of the hand and disappeared into his sleeve, as if they had been gnawed by something alive and burrowing.

 _"Why are you doing this?"_

"Because..." Sayaka broke off. Kyosuke's voice had had that heartstopping shattered quality ever since he was hospitalised, but there was something new in it.

"Do you think any of that makes me feel better?" He half sat up, scarred hands balled up in front of his chest. Those hands that couldn't feel. "I'm never going to play again. The doctors've given up on me." He drew a shivering breath. "They say it would require a miracle."

Sayaka had backed towards the door while he spoke. Now she stopped.

"Miracles exist."

Her voice was so quiet, he might not have heard.

* * *

Sayaka headed down to the bottom floor. She wanted to spend some time alone, in the reception with its cool shadows and mirroring flagged floor, but from a side corridor came the voice of a man pleading with someone.

"But you're a doctor! There's got to be... I dunno, I read that they can use arsenic to kill the tumors. Or something, there's got to be _something_!"

He sounded like he was in lower middle age, voice rough with despair. The doctor replied, too quietly for Sayaka to hear the words.

"Just cut it out, then!" the man replied. "I don't care what you have to get rid of, just let him live!"

Then he hadn't been begging for himself. Sayaka had to get up and go outside into the parking lot. She couldn't deal with another person with that kind of pain.

There was a bench, hot with sun. She flopped down on it.

If she used her wish to save Kyosuke and became a Cibus, she would be stuck like that, like Madoka. Or would she? Perhaps she would be able to diet herself back to normal weight, even if it took more than a year.

She looked down at herself, her narrow waist and sinewy arms. She still didn't like to think about what Madoka had turned into – but becoming a Cibus had made Madoka stronger, not weaker.

So the only thing she had to be afraid of would be other kids thinking that she was ugly and disgusting, and how could she even think about that while Kyosuke's future was at stake? Then there were the other people who would die if they met an Esuriens.

The glass doors hissed open next to her. A man walked out, head bowed, next to a little boy who looked so wisp thin he might drift away on the wind. Was that the father? Sayaka looked away.

She clenched her fists, and as she looked down at them, she thought about Kyosuke's.

* * *

Hanging out with Mami had been a lot better than school. Mami would always be nice to Madoka, if quiet, and they kept well away from other people. When Madoka was next to Mami, she didn't even feel that big: Mami was taller than she, and a bit fatter as well.

As they walked together, Mami explained a few details on the Esurians, such as the barriers. These meant they didn't have to worry much about property damage while fighting the Esuriens, or accidentally having bypassers die from their attacks.

For now though, they'd try to see whether Madoka could do any damage at all.

"This will do," Mami said and led the way into a vacant lot that was tall with grass and weeds. "Let's practice your weapon."

Madoka pulled her bow from her sash and looked at it. Like all the other parts of her outfit, the bow and arrow were pink wherever possible, glittery everywhere else. The arrowheads were even shaped like love hearts.

"How do I do it?" Madoka said.

She held the bow straight out in her swollen hands. It was as useless as the rest of her.

"I can't say I have much experience," Mami said. "But it might be the most appropriate weapon for you, Kaname-san, or you wouldn't have it. Take an arrow, put its back end against the string... like this, then pull it back and let go. Try it. Just try to stick an arrow in that fence, don't worry about aiming for anything yet."

She pointed Madoka towards the unpainted plank fence. Madoka tried. On the first try, she didn't release the string in time, and the arrow just fell on the ground. The second time, the arrow flew off, but didn't reach the fence.

"I'm sorry, I'm not very good, am I?" She had to fight to keep the whine out of her voice.

"We all have to practice," Mami said. "You were never good the first time you tried anything, were you?"

There was nothing harsh in her voice, just support. She sounded almost like Junko.

On Madoka's next try, she hit the fence, even if it was low and the arrow stuck askew.

"I told you, didn't I?" Mami said. "Now just wait, I'll make you a target."

As she raised her pistol and aimed it at the fence, she froze. She turned her head slowly to the left. Madoka could feel it too, an inexplicable chill in the air, but perhaps she wouldn't have noticed it if not for Mami.

Mami rushed out of the yard. Madoka had a hard time keeping up with her: her legs were shorter, she had to veer around things that Mami could jump over. When she got out in the alley she didn't see Mami and nearly panicked, but then spotted her head for the main street.

The hospital...

Someone else ran past them, a Cibus with long black hair and a plain white and grey dress – Homura. Madoka would have called out to her, but she needed all the oxygen she could get to keep running. Homura seemed to zip ahead of them in invisible leaps. One moment she was only a few steps ahead, but the next time Madoka saw her she was nearly twenty yards down the road.

They could see the hospital now, a great expanse of white façade drowning in the almost bluish green of planted pines. The many windows should have been lit with sunlight, but they were shadowed – the unnatural dusk of the Esuriens had fallen here.

A greyish black Esuriens lay in front of the main entrance. Limbless, it looked like a massive slug, longer than the line of cars near it. Or rather, that might have been cars. Now they appeared as half melted waxen statues. The buildings too had a slimy layer, and the ground grew distorted fungi.

Madoka slowed down a little, wondering whether anything else was dangerous.

"Don't worry about the environment," called Mami. "It's just part of the barrier. Focus on the enemy!"

On this cue, Madoka got out an arrow. She still didn't know how to do this, but Mami was watching over her. She wasn't going to let her down by running away.

Homura abruptly appeared in the path before them.

"Akemi-san," Mami said. "Help out, or let us pass."

"I will let you pass," Homura said, "but not Madoka. She needs to stay in safety."

"No!" Madoka called out.

She looked past Homura's massive bulk, down into the car park. The Esuriens still hadn't entered the hospital. Couldn't it get through the door? No, something blocked its way. It looked like another Cibus.

* * *

The cold raised the hairs on Sayaka's shoulders and below the edge of her skirt. The change had given her a new outfit, a white cloak and a strange blue and white dress with long blue gloves, but the only part that mattered was the sword : long and curved, it's the blade shining like a mirror.

"Come _on_ , already!" she growled at the Esuriens. "You want in here? You'll have to go through me."

She had never fought with a blade before, but this was made for her. Her body had changed, it was bloated and heavy. Its outlines weren't clean. The Esuriens was massive in front of her, blocking out everything except a ribbon of sky. If she'd had her old body, she would have been agile enough to run around it to stab any weak points before it had the time to react. All she could do now was to wait and block. Kyosuke was in there.

The Esuriens started opening its mouth, round and with rows of fangs as far as the light reached.

It took time: the mouth was going to be as wide as its body. She scooted to the side and buried her blade in the shiny dark tissue of what ought to have been its head. She hacked up a long wound, but the Esuriens whipped around towards her faster than she could have expected.

A girl's voice yelled in the distance. It sounded like Madoka.

* * *

" _It's Sayaka!_ " Madoka shouted.

She tried to dive past Homura, but Homura slammed out an arm and grabbed the front of her dress. Mami pushed between them with her full weight, shoving Homura back with the side of her gun.

"I hope you understand what you are doing, Akemi-san," she said. "This is my last warning."

Homura's expression never changed. "And I won't back down, Tomoe-san."

Mami pointed her gun at Homura, but she only fired a cocoon of white ribbons. It twirled around Homura and locked her arms and legs to the ground.

"Kaname-san, stay at a distance and give me ranged support," Mami said over her shoulder. "I'm going in to help her."

As she ran, she fired a shot at the tapering tail of the creature. There was a little burst of white blood. It might not have been enough to cause serious damage, but the Esuriens whipped like a wounded earthworm and lost interest in Sayaka.

"Madoka?" Homura said.

She wasn't pleading, her voice was strong. Madoka drew an arrow.

Homura heaved at one of the ribbons. Her arms seemed thicker than most men's thighs, but the ribbon didn't give.

"Madoka. Go away. Let them handle this."

She couldn't do this if Homura was going to try to talk to her all the while.

"I'm sorry," she murmured and stalked into the car park, arrow still in place.

Down by the hospital, Mami fired at the Esuriens in an attempt to lure it away from the gates.

While it focused on her, Sayaka darted up and plunged her sword in the Esuriens' neck, then danced back again.

 _Give me ranged support._

Madoka drew back the string, but Mami was between her and the monster. What if she hit her?

She scooted to the side to get a better shot, but the Esuriens reared up like a cobra and swayed high over Mami.

Madoka let off the arrow. It must have hit, but she couldn't see the shaft against the dusky bulk of the Esuriens. The creature twitched, but it didn't seem injured.

" _Just move already!_ " she screamed.

Mami still stood there. She would only have needed a few steps to get away from the Esuriens, but she waited, head and gun turned upward. Her thick right arm tensed. She fired.

White exploded out of the Esuriens' head. It crashed down, and Madoka heard herself scream – but Mami was out of danger. The white and yellow of her dress glinted dully under the shadowed sky as she fired another round into the monster's head. There was the familiar burst of painful light, engulfing the Esuriens and winking out.

This time, the sky remained shadowed.

 _Why hadn't the light come back?_

Madoka blinked, and in that blink the Esuriens reformed. Deadly silent as they always were, it towered up Mami, who had turned to Sayaka.

All Madoka had time to do was scream.

* * *

Mami saw it, but only as a shadow at the edge of her field of sight. She spun around, and darkness slammed down around her. For a moment she still stood on the tarmac, gun in hand, the long dark mouth of the Esuriens covering her like a narrow sack. She fired and didn't hear the report.

Something flung her up and tossed her about, and it was still dark. Perhaps she wasn't going to die yet. Sayaka was out there with her sharp sword. If anything could cut through the creature, that would be it. She closed her eyes and tried to squeeze herself up as small as possible. Her abdomen, her neck artery: if neither of those were severed as she went through the circles of teeth, perhaps she could make it.

The segments around her heaved. Her foot crunched. The impact wrenched the scream out of her, but she couldn't hear it. The pain seared through her, she couldn't, didn't want to imagine the damage.

Something cut off both of her shinbones. The pain threatened to drown out all rational thought.

Of course she had failed. She hoped that the younger girls would be all right.

* * *

"Just kill it!" Madoka sobbed.

Sayaka tried to. She hacked away at the Esuriens, first in one spot, then in another. Madoka could see now that it was a different Esuriens from the one Mami had shot: it was smaller, even if it was still several times longer than a human, and didn't have the same wounds.

Madoka flinched every time the blade dug into its flesh, as if it might cut Mami's hair or her leg, but who cared? It might save her.

She grabbed an arrow and ran up. There was no point in shooting, but perhaps she could stick the arrow deep in the monster's brain and kill it. Perhaps it would vomit up Mami.

A surge of energy shook the ground. When she could see again, the sun shone bright. There was no Esuriens, and no Mami.

Madoka just stood there for a while, staring at the spot where the Esuriens had been. Sayaka ran and looked behind the rows of cars, then came back, shaking her head.

"Just in case there's another Esuriens," she said. "But I didn't see anything."

She didn't mention what else she had been looking for. Madoka still stuck around, as if Mami was going to walk up, perhaps with some breezy action hero catchphrase like "sorry to keep you waiting."

This was the real world, and Mami didn't come back.

"She must have fired her gun while... yeah," Sayaka said. "Blown its brains out or something. She would do something like that."

Madoka nodded. She hadn't heard the gun, but she couldn't think of any better explanation to how the Esuriens had died.

Homura came down the parking lot. The ribbons must have dissolved when Mami died. Madoka's first impulse was to shout at her, cry, plead – but what had Homura done? The anger went away and left something worse.

"You will need to return," she said, facing the hospital, not looking at them. "The small ones will begin to hatch from tomorrow on."

Madoka probably should have asked what she meant, but right now all she could focus on was running with Sayaka, as far from the hospital as possible. At some point she would have to slow down, ...and accept that Mami was dead.

* * *

 **Note:** Originally, I had requested that all the main five band together and defeat at least one Esuriens before any of them die. The person I commissioned might have forgotten about that while I was still awaiting a friend's critique of the first chapter, which I was still waiting for when she, against my request, went ahead with the rest of the story. But then again, Mami does survive against Charlotte in The Different Story, so she very well could if this story spins off any equivalent to that.


	3. Picking Scraps Off the Ground

**Chapter 3: Picking Scraps Off the Ground**

That evening, Sayaka went to the hospital to arrange for Kyosuke to sit up on the roof and play the violin for the first time since his accident. She had to physically force herself into areas where she would have to face other people, but the hospital was better than going home. At least nobody here knew her.

As she walked back alone after speaking to Nurse Emiya, she heard a slow, wobbling sound. It reminded her of the monster that had killed Mami, and that thought almost made her ignore it – if she had some sort of PTSD leaving its scar tissue inside her skull, she might be better off just walking ahead and not thinking about it.

She glanced around anyway. There was nothing here, but she could still hear the sound. She focused; it came from somewhere to the left.

She followed it to a short corridor leading to a ward on each side. The grey doors to the wards were closed and the hallway was in shadow. A long streak of twitching and pulsating darkness lay on the floor. It nuzzled one set of doors. When she came closer, it let go of the door and started

slithering around towards her. She almost ran, but she wasn't just a human any more. The creature looked like the Esuriens from the parking lot, only much smaller, hardly bigger than a lying person. Could they breed? It was hard to imagine them doing something so innocent, but there had been two.

She changed into her Cibus identity. The change felt slow and thudding – everything she did was so crashingly heavy now, but the Esuriens hesitated in front of her, as if it were worried about facing something bigger than it.

She whipped out her sword and sliced it into its thick body. The Esuriens lashed up towards her. Sayaka impaled its head on her blade, but the rest of its body kept moving as if it wasn't injured at all.

It was like wrestling against another human. She stamped down on its tail, then wrenched the blade upwards until it slid free. The Esuriens fell coiled on the floor. For a moment she didn't dare to inhale, but then the Esuriens evaporated into light.

On her way out she thought she heard it again, but that time it might have been her imagination.

* * *

Gym class was the worst change since they became Cibi. Madoka was all right, at least she tried to tell herself that she was all right – she always stayed in the background, she didn't have any gymnastic talent to lose.

She felt worse for Sayaka. Sayaka had always been sleek and energetic. She would never get that back now, was she? Madoka glanced over to her. She stood off to the corner of the field, waiting for the gym teacher to enter. A group of slim, tall girls stood nearby, talking.

"Well, I wish I could lose five pounds in time for the beach season... I just can't show myself in a swimsuit like this."

"No, I totally don't believe you, Kaorin. You don't have a pound of fat to lose anywhere."

A completely innocent conversation. None of them even looked at Sayaka.

Sayaka glared at them until Madoka could almost feel her muscles tensing up. She walked up to them –Madoka's breath caught in her throat– but she didn't do anything violent. Instead, she lowered herself to the grit.

"I have a proposal," she said, her voice unruffled. "How about one of you compete with me... see how many press-ups we can do."

Kaorin burst out laughing, and one of the other girls stepped away from Sayaka slightly, as if she might infect them.

For all Madoka knew, Sayaka might change into her Cibus outfit and have a go at them with her sword at any moment.

 _Don't do it!_ She relayed like a desperate yelp.

Sayaka's gaze met hers across the field.

 _Listen to them._ Even in the mind link, Madoka could hear her anger. _Not a single thing on their minds except looking good and getting boys, and somehow I'm the freak... and you know, I'll keep putting my life on the line for them, because I'm too much of a sucker to let them get eaten by Esurientes. A pause. Mami was fifty times the woman they'll never be, and she died for people like that..._

 _Sayaka, please._

Sayaka's shoulders sagged.

 _We should probably go back to the hospital this afternoon, she said, changing the subject. Remember what Homura said? I think there are more Esurientes._

Madoka's fear must have shown, because Sayaka went on:

 _Don't worry. I've already killed one, and it was pretty tiny... no bigger than you. They're just... babies or something. We'll probably be fine, even if it's just us two._

Of course she had to remind them that Mami was dead. Madoka nodded, but it took some effort.

 _I'll go with you, of course. Maybe Homura can help out._

Sayaka shook her head. _I doubt it. She doesn't seem to work for anyone._

At that point the gym teacher told them to start warming up, and Madoka had to focus on the training. She might have become slower than before her change, but she was stronger and perhaps more limber. Sayaka had become worse in every aspect; she even seemed weaker. Perhaps she hated her body so much. Madoka couldn't look at her struggle anymore.

After class ended, the gym teacher called her. Madoka stayed behind as the other kids walked off to the changing rooms. No matter what was going to happen, she was happy that there would be fewer girls to watch her as she undressed and showered.

"Kaname chan," the teacher said. "If you want me to, I can give you some ideas for a training schedule in your free time." She smiled, uncertainly. "It doesn't have to be anything strenuous. You can start with just walking around the block with a friend."

* * *

Madoka hurried towards the hospital behind Sayaka. The sun was a bright glitter along the way, and that was a good sign. She didn't have to look around for Esurientes.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw a red haired girl who leaned on a wall, eating some snack. That made Madoka think of the Pocky in the back pocket of her bag. She made sure to have some snack at hand most days, in case her blood sugar was going to drop. Thinking about Mami still hurt. Was it ever going to stop hurting?

"Do you want some Pocky?" she asked Sayaka as they reached the hospital.

Sayaka shook her head and didn't look at her.

"I need to go and check on someone," she said. "Can you wait out here?"

Madoka waited. After a while, she put her back against the façade so that nothing could sneak up on her.

A shadow fell over her. She glanced up and saw a dark object growing against the sky...

White blood drizzled down on her. Homura materialised out of nowhere and pulled her away. The tiny Esuriens smacked into the flower bed and disintegrated.

"I thought your friend was watching over you," Homura said. She didn't look at Madoka.

"She was going to be back right away!"

Homura turned away from Madoka, but not as if she were about to leave. She stood guard. Madoka notched an arrow and moved away from the façade, in case other Esurientes came falling out the windows.

"Why do you keep following me?" she said.

Homura's tone didn't change. "Because I don't want you to die."

"Why me, but not Mami?"

Homura didn't reply. The silence weighed on Madoka, it felt wrong somehow to keep asking.

A few seconds later Sayaka came out of the entrance, a wide anxious smile on her face. She glanced at Homura.

"Let's go," Madoka said. "Homura-san, you can come with us if you want."

Homura did follow them, but they didn't talk again. Did the telepathic link work on Homura? But then, why wouldn't it? Whenever they came across an Esuriens, Homura would fight back to back with Madoka. Even Sayaka would have to admit that Homura was better than the two of them, with her boxy grey guns and her ability to shoot the Esurientes before Madoka even saw them.

That said, Sayaka did well, too. She fought fiercely and almost happily, as if she lived out everything she hadn't been able to do in gym class.

They killed about eight Esurientes that day; perhaps more, if Sayaka had got a few while Madoka didn't see her. The only thing that gave Madoka pause was Sayaka getting a long dripping wound along her lower arm from where one Esuriens managed to bite her. It looked shocking, but Sayaka even managed a laugh. It sounded lighter than her usual one.

"I can grow the skin back," she said. "I think that's because my wish was for Kyosuke to become well... it gave me the power of healing. Look."

She held up her arm for Madoka to see. The dangling strips of skin started to move and crawl across the wound, as if her skin was subject to another mind than hers. It looked horrific.

Madoka's gaze slid away from it, and she spotted another Esuriens spawn crawling up behind Sayaka. She cried out and grabbed an arrow, but Sayaka spun around and sliced it open.

It was easy to find them. Whenever they turned and faced down a new corridor, the Esurientes would come towards them. They never hid.

"It's almost as if they're drawn to us," Madoka said, catching her breath during a lull in the battle.

"They are," Homura said. Her expression didn't change.

It was getting on towards dinner time and Madoka had to think about going home. She glanced at Sayaka. Her torn up glove hung lose over her healed arm, preserving the shape of the wound, and her dress missed large strips of cloth around the waist, even though Madoka hadn't seen anything get close enough to rip it. Her pale rolled flesh was visible through the opening.

"You think that was all of them?" Madoka said.

"It was all," Homura said as she looked out a window. "Their barrier is letting up."

It was true, the afternoon sun had returned in the glittering sky. They headed downstairs.

A pudgy red headed girl in a worn green coat sat outside, eating a rice ball. It was the girl they had passed earlier, and Madoka's gaze stayed on her for a few extra seconds, trying to decide whether she was another Cibus. She was pretty, even at her weight, with a face like a ferret or some other sharp little animal, and long sweep of red hair. When she ripped into the rice ball, one of her canine teeth looked almost like a fang.

"What have you been up to, ladies?" she said, getting up halfway from her bench.

Sayaka stopped in her tracks.

"What do you mean?" she said.

"Oh, don't act so surprised," the girl said. "Three girls of your size walking about? I know what you are."

She straightened up, and a halo of glaring light grew around her. When it passed, she was clad in a straight red dress with pleated white frills and a slit in front showing a skirt and tall dark stockings. She leaned on a spear with the head of a cross, all in a dark glossy metal.

"And I need to know what you are doing," she went on. "Now that Mami's kicked it, this is my territory."

"What the hell?" Sayaka said.

She looked at Homura, as if she might challenge the new girl, but Homura kept walking until she vanished behind the houses. Sayaka looked back at Madoka instead.

"Would you believe this girl?" she said, loud enough for the girl to hear. She turned around. "Well, for your information, we were killing little Esurientes up in the hospital. Thanks for your support."

"Little Esurientes?" The girl looked at them as if they were halfwits. "You mean, the spawn?" She laughed. "Of course, you would waste your time on those. You girls should probably be grateful that I'm here to take over this joint. If you stuck around, the Esurientes would eat the place in no time." She got up and walked off.

"What the hell," Sayaka said again. "If we left those Esurientes... then when they grew up, they would have killed everyone!"

"People sometimes die in hospitals." She didn't even bother to turn around.

"No, wait here one moment!" Sayaka rushed up and grabbed the girl's shoulder. "How about you tell me who you are... you know, the one who's supposed to have the run of this town."

"Sakura Kyoko," the girl said. "And you know, I'm not crazy about taking over Mitakihara. You're welcome to take care of it, as long as you stop wasting your time going after spawn."

She twisted free of Sayaka's grip, reached into a pocket of her dress and pulled up a red apple that she started eating.

Sayaka punched – not her face, but the apple. It bounced on the tarmac and split. Kyoko's eyes widened for a second. She bent down, picked up the remains of the apple, then looked up at Sayaka.

"Looks like I'm going to have to teach you a lesson," she said.

"What a coincidence, I was about to say the same thing."

Kyoko stabbed her cross spear forward. It went through Sayaka's side, and Sayaka laughed.

"Nice one, Kyoko. I was thinking of losing some weight anyway."

Before Kyoko had time to wrench her spear free, Sayaka whipped out her sword and put the tip to Kyoko's throat.

Madoka screamed without wanting.

Would she be able to run up and separate them? She was shorter than both of them, and even if she did manage to pull them apart, she would hear how the spear slid out of Sayaka's flesh...

She didn't have to stand here and let this happen.

She took an arrow, notched it, pulled the string and aimed at Kyoko. Kyoko turned her head towards her. Every part of Madoka felt how useless she was right now, just a kid with a toy bow, but Kyoko didn't know that.

"Move away from each other, both of you!" she said, her voice high and bright. "Because I'll shoot. We are supposed to be fighting monsters, and right now, I'm seeing two monsters!"

Kyoko slowly turned, spitting on the ground.

"Good luck, then," she said, wandering off.

Madoka went home with Sayaka. Every now and then she turned around, but no one stalked them.

* * *

"Are you okay, Madoka chan?" asked Junko as they ate dinner.

Madoka glanced up at her. All the words crowded at the tip of her tongue. No matter how confusing and horrifying it would be to Junko and Tomohisa, at least she would finally get to talk about it and ask them what to do.

"I mean, you look so pensive," Junko went on. "Has anything happened?"

Madoka looked down into her fish. Every bite she took reminded her of seeing an Esuriens spawn splitting open. She had to keep eating to keep her body going.

"Something bad happened to a kid in my school," she murmured. "I'll tell you later..." She glanced in the direction of little Tatsuya who was happily stuffing his face.

"Oh..." Junko ruffled her hair. "You know you can come talk to me or your father about it."

Her lie seemed to work. It was good, she could make up that Mami had died of an illness or in an accident, and Junko and Tomohisa would comfort her and she wouldn't have to tell the truth.

Silence lowered itself around the table. Tomohisa reached for the crystalline salad bowl, eager to change the subject.

"Have some more salad, Madoka chan," he said. "It'll do you good."

Much later that evening, Madoka had got out of bed when she realised that she'd forgotten to brush her teeth. Voices came from the bright golden light in the kitchen, and she padded closer. She'd used to stand here and listen to Junko and Tomohisa talking when she was Tatsuya's age and had sneaked out of bed.

"... but it might be dangerous!" Junko's voice, rising in an agitation Madoka had rarely heard from her. "I think we should take her to see a doctor."

"Hmmm." Tomohisa fell silent for a second. "I just hope there's a way of doing it without hurting her feelings. I mean, she's not just a child any more."

"Tomohisa, if it does turn out that she's caught something dangerous, I don't care how much we hurt her as long as..." Junko cut herself off.

That night, Madoka wanted to lock her bedroom door. As soon as she realised it, she wondered where that feeling had come from. She obviously didn't believe that Junko and Tomohisa were going to come and drag her out of bed and down to the car; she wasn't that stupid. She was afraid of something. She didn't want them to look at her the way she was now, but if she shut them out, she would hurt them more.

* * *

Sayaka exercised in her bedroom. Kyubey slept on her bed, curled up with one paw over his nose. At first she'd tried ski jumps –it seemed like the kind of exercise that would burn calories quickly– but her father had banged on her door.

"It's late! Don't wake the flat downstairs!" he shouted

She went over to press-ups. It was bound to burn a few cals, and it would keep her new muscles maintained, that was good, but every heave made her feel how heavy her body had become. She still managed forty press-ups, and might have managed more if she'd tried, but she'd only eaten about half a portion at dinner. It had been mostly rice and veg. At first she had been hungry, but the hunger had gone and left a faint, sick ache in her stomach.

"Kyubey," she whispered, pretending to pose in front of the half size mirror on the wall. "Kyubey, does my butt look big in this?"

Kyubey sat up and blinked twice. "What exactly are you talking about?"

"I'm going to try to lose weight." She went down on her palms on the floor again. "I mean, I really appreciate being this strong, but if I got back to normal size, I'd be a lot faster... nimbler. I'd be able to fight a lot better."

"But that is not possible."

Sayaka looked up. "What do you mean, 'not possible'?"

Kyubey scratched his ear with one paw. "The moment you became a Cibus, your entire body was reconfigured to have its current composition. You cannot burn your fat reserves to any noticeable degree."

"What if I just stop eating, then?" Her voice sounded raw.

"If you don't eat enough, you will pass out, like Mami did," Kyubey said. "If you persist in not eating, you will suffer permanent damage. Don't do that." He paused, then continued, almost as if he was trying to reassure her. "We need you for the Esurientes."

"If I was thin again, I would be able to fight better!" She didn't know why she still tried to discuss this, if he really couldn't do anything.

"That is not why we need you," Kyubey said. "You have seen how many Esurientes there are. Do you truly believe that you and your fellow Cibi would be able to destroy them all?"

Something started to go wrong. Sayaka could see it up ahead. She would find something out if she asked now, and it would give her nightmares.

"Go away," she said.

"You know I am never going to go away."

"Go away!" Her voice rose.

She didn't see whether he went. She sat curled up on her bed. Her eyes were closed, but as soon as she moved, she could feel all the eerie folds of fat. She'd thought about going out to hunt tonight – she hadn't been going to look for the Kyoko girl, but if she did show up, it would have been worst for her.

Much good that would do now. She was going to have to sleep, and she didn't know whether she'd be able to.

* * *

From behind the row of trees, Sayaka watched Hitomi walk with Kyosuke on her arm. Damn, but they were beautiful together. Hitomi was so slender and curly haired, her face sated with a beautiful smug little smile. Of course she hadn't needed to feel any angst about asking Kyosuke out. What claim did Sayaka have on him, when she looked like this?

What claim did she have on him anyway? She'd saved his career. _Wasn't that what you were supposed to do anyway? Regardless of whether the person you saved were going to marry you for it._

If she called out now, Kyosuke would stop, and she would be able to run up and explain. Of course she wasn't going to do it. She watched their figures shrinking in the sunlight of the avenue.

Kyosuke's hair shone in a ray of sun as he turned his head. Perhaps he had seen her. He kept walking.

* * *

Madoka had spent the day waiting to go out and hunt with Sayaka in the afternoon, but Sayaka wasn't even around for the last couple of lessons. She hadn't reported to the infirmary. Saotome-sensei glared at her empty seat and gave the rest of the class a lecture about the horrible habit some students had of cutting class.

She couldn't have sneaked off to the hospital, because Kamijo was back in school. And spending all the breaks with Hitomi. Oh.

When school finally finished, Madoka didn't go home. She wandered through town, always prepared to reach into that place in her mind and change into her other identity.

It wasn't that long since lunch, but she started to feel faint and week at the knees from lack of energy. She stopped into a corner store and bought a pink box of Yukimi Daifuku from the freezer.

She sat on the ledge of a shrubbery and ate the little bite sized pieces of textured ice cream, but a couple of older boys walked by, and she saw them glaring at her.

"Ever notice how when you see someone eating, it's always someone fat?" one of them said.

She wandered at random, but she hadn't walked far enough to get tired when she felt the familiar chill and saw the sun become a cold disk. She dove into an alley and changed. When she got out, she heard muffled screams and the sounds of smashing from somewhere that was hidden behind the façades. It was only the voice of one person. Esurientes didn't have voices.

She tracked the noises to another alley, but when she got there, Sayaka had nearly beaten the Esuriens. Madoka could barely even see what shape the monster had had, because Sayaka had hacked off several of its limbs. Big chunks of blackish brown flesh littered the floor of the alley.

Sayaka grinned horribly at her over the heaving, struggling Esuriens. Her hair and outfit were streaked with its blood.

As Madoka watched, Sayaka jumped up and ran her sword vertically into the apex of the creature, where its brain should have been. She stood back.

"Sorry about that," she panted, catching her breath. "Next time I'll save some for you."

Her outfit was torn up: her dress was almost ripped in two, and her cape hung in tatters. Red blood trickled out into the white. When the Esuriens burst into light and evaporated, only the red was left.

Madoka must have winced, because Sayaka gave her an apologetic grin and glanced at the wound in her side. It was large and jagged like a bite.

"Regeneration," she forced out. "I'll deal."

Perhaps the edges of the wound had already started closing up. Her face looked pale and ill, as if something was wasting away underneath the firm fat.

"Are you hungry?" Madoka said. It sounded helpless. "I bought some Yukimi Daifuku."

"Ew, no, sorry." Sayaka shook her head. Her hair had a dull sheen to it, as if she hadn't washed it for days. "Anyway, I'm off to do some more hunting. You can come along if you want."

"Have you killed any already?"

"Only one this afternoon." Sayaka forced that smile again. "But as they say, the night is still young."

Madoka went with her, perhaps for the same reason that Homura followed herself. Sayaka's wound healed, but her dress seemed to be falling apart. Little strips of cloth crumbled and flaked off as Madoka watched.

While they walked, Sayaka kept talking. Perhaps she wasn't even talking to her.

"Because this is what we're here for. Killing things. We're just machines for killing Esurientes, and, and they're machines for eating Cibi. Nobody really cares about fat girls anyway. We're so expendable. Everyone would hate if this happened to a pretty girl who walks around the park with her sparkly wavy hair and her boyfriend on her arm..."

She kept going. Madoka didn't know whether she would hurt Sayaka if she cut her off, nor whether she already hurt her by letting her go on.

"It won't be long until one finds us," Sayaka said after a while. Her voice sounded more normal. "I think they track us by smell. Pheromones, if that's what you want to call it. We're like the tastiest meal in the world for them. They choose us over normal people, you know. It's something Kyubey put in our bodies when we changed... something..."

Sayaka didn't walk straight anymore, but pushed on.

"Sayaka, that can't be true. Kyubey's just helping us protect humankind," Madoka said, but she couldn't put confidence to the world.

"Ha! If Kyubey meant well, he would have told us about that."

She pushed Madoka around, making her look at a lone figure who wandered across the pavement. The person's outlines blurred strangely, like seeing through a rainy window.

"I've started noticing them ever since we got these powers," Sayaka muttered. "Many of them show up in the same area."

"What do you mean, Sayaka?"

The blurry person looked up with hollow eyes fixed on them.

"It's other people, Madoka," Sayaka said. "They become the Esurientes and we have no idea why, or how to stop it. I bet Kyubey knows."

The person kept on walking. Madoka didn't want to believe Sayaka, but at the same time she Sayaka had never been a liar.

The blurry person still stared at them, head at a near impossible angle.

Madoka fixed her eyes on Sayaka's back, who kept walking and walking.

Sayaka had been right, it didn't take long.

A shadow fell across the sun, and something dark raced around them and trapped them in a closed circle. It was a snake – no, something segmented and almost glittering, a centipede.

Sayaka raised both arms.

"Your meal on wheels is here!" she called. "Let's tuck in!"

She barged into the monster and cut a long wound in its side. The monster uncurled around them and reared up over Sayaka, who sliced off three of its legs. Madoka notched an arrow. The legs on the other side swept towards Sayaka –on her injured side– but Madoka let off her arrow. She was getting better aim. Her arrow stunned the Esuriens long enough for Sayaka to back out of danger.

" _Damn it_ , Madoka!" she growled, as if Madoka had insulted her.

She screamed as she hacked up the Esuriens. Sometimes she cursed; sometimes there weren't even any words that Madoka could understand.

The thing died, and Sayaka fell to her knees in remains of the monster.

It was getting late, and Madoka said, "I should go home, it's almost dinner time. You should go home too, I bet your parents are waiting for you."

"I don't eat any more," Sayaka said. She tried standing, but couldn't stay straight. The white blood on her face and hands turned into blinding light as the Esuriens died. She shone like some sort of diseased angel. "Why should I play along with their plan? I'm already doing my part."

As Madoka walked away, she hoped that Kyoko would run into Sayaka again and fight her. Even if Sayaka got beaten up, at least it might prevent her from facing another Esuriens.

* * *

Come Saturday morning, Junko put an arm around Madoka's puffy shoulder as she headed for the staircase. It wasn't a hard grip, but she didn't let go.

"Your father and I have decided that you need to see a doctor," she said, almost as if she was ashamed. "You must understand, we don't want to embarrass you, but... I worry about you."

There wasn't anything Madoka could do about it.

* * *

It was a long drive to the clinic. It wasn't the one closest to their block, and Madoka realized that Junko might be taking her somewhere where people wouldn't recognize her.

* * *

"Kaname Junko and Madoka? Dr. Yashima Yoshinaga will see you now," called a nurse. In they walked to see the doctor.

"For some reason," began Junko, "my daughter had gained an enormous amount of weight just a couple of days ago. Her weight was quite normal for someone her age before she left for school, but I honestly don't know what to make of this."

"I have heard rumors of something like this," said Yashima, grimly. "Your daughter is the first case I have actually seen personally, but the ones I've heard about before tended to disappear without a trace shortly after getting to be that size."

"Are you kidding me?" Madoka could hear Junko gasp. She, though, knew that it was no rumor.

"Madoka-chan, I'm sure you're the only one who knows what had happened. If you can please tell me everything that happened, we might be able to look into the causes behind this.

At first, the girl hesitated, but she then remembered that her wish was to give people hope. Nothing more, and nothing less.

"The other day," she started, "as I was on my way to school, I saw something like a bear approaching me..."

* * *

"It's almost one o'clock," said Junko, looking at her watch after they left the clinic. "Hey, what do you say about eating at a café or something before we go home? Just us two girls."

They found an almost empty café on a quiet, sunny street. Junko didn't tell Madoka what to order, but Madoka chose a salad anyway. When she glanced up at Junko, Junko smiled, but it looked as if she was forcing back tears at the corners of her eyes.

The salad was nice and fresh, but there was no protein, barely any calories. She was going to have to eat something more when she got home, or she would have to spend the entire afternoon feeling weak and with a headache. She wolfed it down anyway so that Junko would see how much she enjoyed it. When they had eaten, they got back in the car and started the drive home.

Afterwards, she would think that she should have felt something. She should have known it when it happened.

* * *

Sayaka had been out hunting since breakfast. She hadn't been able to go completely without food, but she'd only had a couple of slices of toast with nothing on, mainly to trick her body into believing that she was feeding it. Perhaps she shouldn't bother coming home for lunch. She'd seen the way her parents looked at her. They'd probably be better off if they didn't have to watch her eat.

She wasn't feeling bad, not physically. The stomach ache of hunger was going away, a bit quicker every time. She felt light headed, perhaps the same way you felt when you were drunk. If she'd been alone in the street, she might have started singing.

She killed an Esuriens, hacking it to pieces, but not before it got a swipe in at her leg. The scratches were so deep, she could see her thigh bone deep in the thick layers of red.

It was okay, she didn't seem to feel pain in the same way now that she was able to regenerate her flesh, but the hunting didn't seem to help so much any more. At the start, she'd had her anger to work out – anger against Hitomi, and against Kyosuke as well. She barely had any feelings left. She was a machine. Had she already said that to someone?

The next time the shadow fell over her was in the desert wide parking lot outside a row of colorful warehouses. A tubby figure in red was fighting an Esuriens that was little more than a crawling blob of darkness. It was that girl who had insulted Mami, Ryoko or Kyoko? Sayaka advanced, but stopped in surprise. Kyoko skipped to the left and waited for the Esuriens to toss out a part of itself like a stubby featureless tentacle. She backed away, but only just out of reach, and thrust out her cross spear. It caught on the Esuriens' skin, or membrane or whatever they had. The point flared out and shredded through the tentacle. Surely a normal creature would have screamed. _If she could do that with her weapon, why did she waste it on its limbs?_

Kyoko pulled back the spear, dripping black shreds dangling from its point. She removed one with her hands and put it in her mouth.

"What the hell are you doing?" Sayaka called.

Kyoko glanced at her as she chewed. She didn't look like she enjoyed it, but she didn't spit it out.

"Eating Esurientes," she shouted. "Help yourself before it goes away."

Sayaka looked up at the Esuriens. It was almost the size of one of the warehouses, and she couldn't make head or tail of it. None of the Esurientes she had seen had had a face or eyes, but this one didn't even seem to have a mouth. Unless it was at the other side and the Esuriens wasn't fighting them at all, just twitching and lashing out randomly. Sayaka blinked. She tottered again.

"I figured," Kyoko began. Another tentacle smacked into the tarmac with a wet sound, and she stepped out of the way. "I figured if I eat enough of them, my flesh will become like theirs. They won't like the taste."

 _Pheromones. Chemicals._ "We're just food, aren't we?"

"Be quiet, I need to focus!"

Kyoko lashed out with her spear. She wounded the Esuriens, but it didn't react, it kept advancing until Sayaka and Kyoko had to run. Kyoko attacked it again, and Sayaka slashed it with her cutlass, but it had about the same effect.

They sought shelter behind one of the company trucks. The Esuriens would be able to crush the truck if it came closer – but Sayaka looked around the corner to find it no longer advanced on them. Behind them was the warehouse, then a tall board fence. Perhaps it didn't feel that they had anywhere to run. She couldn't make herself feel anything about this.

"But yeah," Kyoko gasped. " _Cibus_ is Latin. It means 'meal'." She was quiet for a moment. "I don't particularly want to taste good when they get me."

Sayaka walked out from behind the truck, cutlass raised –but the Esuriens didn't have eyes that could see it–, a tepid wind making her ripped cape flare up behind her. The Esuriens was tall enough to block out the sky up ahead, but she didn't feel anything any more. Why should a piece of meat need emotions?

"I'm going to try something," she said and never knew whether Kyoko heard.

As she approached, the Esuriens spread a dozen tentacles in all directions, like the petals of an opening flower. They closed again behind her as she dove in and slashed her blade downwards.

* * *

As soon as Madoka got out of the car, she saw a certain someone standing in front of the apartment block. A tubby girl in a badly fitting green coat and a fall of glossy red hair. Something about her expression made Madoka freeze up.

"Mom, that's Kyoko, she's a Cibus too," she said. "Mind if I go talk to her?"

"Mhmm... Oh, sure," Junko said, before disappearing into the glassy staircase.

Kyoko had nothing left of her aggression. She looked down at the street, as if anything was better than looking at Madoka's face.

"Madoka," she said. "Homura told me this is where you live."

"You know Homura?" And she had never told Homura her address. _How did she know?_

"That doesn't matter! Sayaka is in danger."

Kyoko's baby round hand grabbed Madoka's sleeve, too hard for Madoka to pull free. Kyoko

started running down the street, and Madoka had to follow.

 _Danger._ At least that meant that she was alive.

When Kyoko slowed down, Madoka was faint with the lack of oxygen, and little points of colored light moved in front of her eyes.

They stood at the edge of a parking lot in front of a row of warehouses. Homura was there, gun trained on an Esuriens shaped almost like a slime blob in an RPG, only the size of a house. It didn't seem to be attacking her. There was no sign of Sayaka.

"Where is she?" Madoka said once she had enough air.

Homura half turned her head towards them.

"Why did you bring her into danger, Kyoko?" she said.

"Well, it's her friend!" Kyoko said.

 _"Where is she?"_

Homura tilted her head in the direction of the blob. "Inside the Esuriens."

Madoka looked at it. It had no visible mouth, no features at all. Its body was a wall of glistening black.

Kyoko started talking, almost babbling. She must be trying to calm her down.

"She has to still be alive in there. I know that, because they explode into many spawn when they eat a Cibus. It doesn't have any teeth or any of the other things you'd need... no organs. It must eat by absorbing things and dissolving them slowly inside it..." She gasped for breath. "Perhaps we can still get her out."

* * *

 _Dark._

 _There were no intestines here, nothing to differentiate the inside of the Esuriens from the outside._ _She was in a bubble, like a balloon. Its flesh was wet against her palms and legs, but tough. She_ _could press it and it gave a few inches, then sprang back._

 _The sword. She felt the space around her, not bothering to be careful – even if it impaled her_ _hand, at least she would have found it and be able to slash her way out. It wasn't there. Was she_ _going to die? Did she deserve to die for losing her weapon like an idiot? She braced her legs_ _against the rubbery internal wall and pushed. It actually gave a bit, but then the flesh closed_ _around her feet and her legs up to her knees. Her boots were gone, and she hadn't noticed. She_ _could feel the Esuriens flesh between her toes, her toes that she couldn't move. Her clothes were_ _almost gone, there were just a few scraps left to protect her against its touch._

 _There was no more air. The Esuriens closed around her until she couldn't move her arms or legs_ _in its folds. Perhaps it was a dream, but it hurt._

 _She couldn't scream._

* * *

"Kill it, then!" Madoka screamed.

Her arrows were useless, just little points, making wounds no bigger than if you'd stabbed someone with a sharpened pencil. She could shoot the Esuriens, but the arrows wouldn't cut it open, only pierce it, and the pain might make it contract. Sayaka. Kyoko had her spear with its jagged point, and Homura had her explosives that might be able to tear the Esuriens open.

 _"Get her out of there!"_

Homura hesitated, but Kyoko grinned, a smile like a snarl.

"Well, here goes nothing," she said.

The Esuriens reared up over her, but Kyoko dove around it and ran her spear into it, then again.

* * *

 _Her skin burned. At first it was just an itch racing up and down her body, but it turned into a_ _charring pain. Her eyes. Her eyes were just pits of blood. Something ran tickling down her_ _shoulder and back. She couldn't tell whether it was some fluid from the Esuriens or her own skin._

 _There was no air, but she tried to scream anyway, so maybe it would be over quicker._ _The Esuriens shifted around her. Another dense fold pressed down on her chest and forehead_ _and nose. It was so fast. She wished unconsciousness would come slower so that she'd have_ _time to enjoy it, like falling asleep..._

* * *

There was an explosion of unbearable light. Madoka still tried to look at it, in case she would be able to see Sayaka in there, but there was nothing physical in there, just brightness. For a moment she saw a sturdy female silhouette turned black by the light, but it was Kyoko.

In between blinking, Madoka saw Homura running up to her. There was a bleeding scratch down her face, but perhaps she hadn't noticed.

"Come," she said, grabbing Madoka and dragging her away. "The spawn will have grown by tomorrow. I will take care of them."

"But Kyoko..."

It was all Madoka could focus on as they ran. She didn't want to let her thoughts stray further than that.

"Kyoko is also dead," Homura said.

Madoka stopped to turn around, even though Homura forced her to stumble along. She saw a distant, red clad figure flopped on the ground, head plastered to the pavement edge by its own sticky hair. She looked away.

It was yet another sacrifice that had achieved nothing except a free meal for the spawn.


	4. The Feast

**Chapter 4: The Feast**

She had locked herself in her room again. It didn't help. Everything she looked at –her stuffed toys, the schoolbooks– were things she had seen back when Sayaka was alive. If she relaxed even for a moment, her mind would slip back into the ruts where everything was the way it used to be and Sayaka was alive over in her apartment and none of this needed to happen.

"Kyubey," she said.

The tears had changed her voice until it barely sounded like her.

Kyubey sat on the window sill. She wasn't certain that he hadn't always been there.

"Sayaka said that we were just machines for fighting Esurientes," she said.

Kyubey's expression didn't change. She had never seen him blink.

"Well, is it true?" she said.

"You might say that the entire system is a machine. The Esurientes, the Cibi; the predators and the prey."

Prey. She wanted to say something, but it felt like she didn't have the energy to waste on more words. She looked down at her body: broad and porky, every part of it swelling. She wondered if Sayaka had known that she was dying or if it had been too quick.

"Do you know what entropy is?" Kyubey continued. "There is only a finite amount of energy in the universe. All physical processes waste some amount of energy. In time, all energy would dissipate and the universe would grind to a halt, unless more energy were somehow added. There would be no more life."

He raised a slender white paw. "You must understand, this concerns my species as much as yours."

His unemotional voice was mesmerizing, she could listen to it and not think about Sayaka. She wanted to hug him, just because he was still here, but he was going to tell her something horrific.

"That is why my species created this system," he said. "The Esurientes are spawned here on Earth. They are made from humans with a surplus of emotions of the kind that you would consider negative: despair, anger. Our devices have enabled those emotions to manifest into matter."

Madoka had a vision of the vast bulks of the Esurientes lumbering against the pale city lit sky.

"They were human?" she said. Sayaka had been right...

A chill went through her body, the way you feel when you're going to have to throw up.

"Don't concern yourself with that," Kyubey said.

"Could they have been turned back?"

"No," Kyubey said. Madoka breathed out. "The moment their emotions overpowered their other impulses, they stopped being sapients. The only change possible for them was death, either by being killed by Cibi or by reproduction."

"Reproduction?" Her voice sounded flat.

"Not like your race, naturally," Kyubey said, almost as if he wanted to reassure her. "Esurientes reproduce asexually, splitting apart in many immature individuals, like a mushroom spawning."

The spawn, Homura had called them. Madoka had thought she was just being dramatic.

"The spawning occurs when their bodies have a high enough content of certain hormones... none that you humans have words for. It would take them many decades to reach that stage by feeding solely on normal Earth organisms. This is why we designed the Cibi. When a human is turned into a Cibus, its body begins to produce these hormones continuously... this accounts for your change. Female bodies are much more suited to the hormone production than male ones."

Madoka looked down at her hands and her thighs underneath them. The nausea had arrived.

She'd been okay with her new body... not with the ways it hindered her or the looks she got, but okay. Now it was a machine, with unknown functions whirring away beneath her skin. A factory.

She wanted to hide, but no matter where she went, her body would be with her.

"What if I don't want to hunt any more?" she said. It sounded like a child whining to avoid a chore.

"Then the Esurientes will find you. They are drawn to the pheromones of the Cibi. The drive to carry on one's genes is strong in all living things. To them, you taste more delicious than any other food."

 _Any other food._

"Even though we kill them," Madoka said.

"That is only one way to see it," Kyubey replied. "When a Cibus is eaten and triggers the spawning process... that is the fulfillment of the individual Esuriens' life cycle."

"What about the Cibus' life cycle?"

It was too much, first Sayaka's death and now all this horror forced into her brain. She might have to throw up after this.

"But you are the catalysts," Kyubey said. His voice sounded as if this was nothing to be upset about. "When an Esuriens eats one of you, only a small part of the Esuriens' body is used to generate spawn. The rest is transformed into energy." Perhaps a human would have sounded enthusiastic. "Vast bursts of energy... every time. It will keep fueling the universe." His berry-red eyes were fixed on her. They didn't look evil. "Your sacrifice has made that possible."

"Our sacrifice..."

She got up and ran into the hallway. Perhaps Kyubey was behind her, but she didn't turn around. She needed to get out. She didn't have anywhere to go, but she needed to run.

Junko came out of the kitchen door and stood in front of her, her pale brown hair glinting under the light.

"Madoka-chan," she began, "your father and I have thought about..." She looked closer at Madoka. "What's the matter? For heaven's sake, girl, what's happened?"

Her arms were warm around Madoka. Madoka managed not to break down, but it felt like it was the hardest thing she was ever going to have to do.

"It's Kyoko," she said. "The one who came other day? She died..."

"Oh, little Madoka-chan..." Junko stroked her forehead, the way she hadn't done since Madoka was little.

"Is it okay if we don't talk about it right now?"

"Of course it is." Junko let go of her and straightened up. "Wow, I guess this really isn't the right time, but your father was looking up what to do about your..." She made a gesture hinting at the flab. She couldn't even say it. "And he found this summer break health camp a few kilometers outside Kazamino. It's got really good reviews, it doesn't judge you, and you'd get to meet lots of boys and girls your own age."

 _And lose weight. Isn't that right?_

"What do you think, Madoka-chan?"

"Uh... I don't... I dunno..."

She could barely control her voice. First what had happened to Sayaka and Kyubey's revelation, and now fat camp? It felt like she could have passed out. Perhaps it would be better if she did, but her new body was too sturdy. Strange that Kyubey had made them stronger, when their only purpose was to be food.

"You know that your father and I would be very happy if you went," Junko said. "You know I worry about you..."

In the end she promised, because Junko hugged her again, and as long as Madoka was in that warm embrace she felt like she was safe.

* * *

Somehow she managed to go to sleep that night as well. She had a nice dream, where she walked down the road from the convenience store and for some reason she kept meeting Sayaka and Homura and her family, who kept offering her tea leaves. In the dream, her biggest problem was that she didn't have a cup or hot water to make tea with. When she woke up, for a few moments it felt like things were all right.

She spent the next day in a stupor. She could keep going as usual for hours, and then something would set her off in a dull horror. Junko would look at her with concern – she knew part of what was going on, but the grief wasn't the important part any more. That just made Madoka feel worse, as if Sayaka hadn't mattered to her. She spent a lot of time looking out the window, in case anything was approaching.

* * *

The morning after. She tried not to look at her body as she got dressed, but she still had to feel it: the way her flesh _folded_ in places where it hadn't before, the way everything was heavier and a little slower. Her body needed to eat, it was her mind that felt ill at the thought. She still ate. She didn't want to end up like Sayaka.

She said goodbye to her family and went out in the street. The summer sun was brilliant, glaring. Thinking about going to school made her feel ill. At least it was a while to walk – but Hitomi was waiting for her, and she would ask where Sayaka was.

Madoka turned until she couldn't see the way to school. All the roads around her were bright and deserted.

If she stopped fighting Esurientes, they would come to her. Perhaps they would just eat her and leave Junko and Tomohisa and Tatsuya alone... but then the new ones would spawn. She glanced up at the large sheet-glass windows. They were such a fragile shell around Tomohisa and little Tatsuya. At least her family would be safe while she was at school. Perhaps it would be best if she went to fat camp during summer break. Then she would endanger others instead.

She needed to get out of here. The train station was only a few streets away. If she left now, she would already be on her way when the teacher noticed that she was missing.

She couldn't. She didn't have any money. For a moment that thought calmed her, drugged her.

She turned back towards the school.

No. She was afraid, but her wish had been to give people hope. Perhaps that was what gave her strength now.

She went back up the echoing staircase and into the apartment.

"I'm sorry!" she called. "I just forgot something!"

She rushed into her bedroom and grabbed the wallet with all her money. She stuffed a few changes of underwear and clothes into her backpack, though she didn't know how much she would need.

None of them tried to stop her as she went out to the staircase. She didn't have to look at their faces.

* * *

Madoka was not in class. For a few moments, the empty desk was the only thing Homura could see.

It stood to reason. One of her best friends was dead; it wouldn't be surprising if she had locked herself up at home. Didn't she have a right to mourn? Still, that didn't seem like the Madoka Homura knew. The last time Homura had known her, she had always seemed like a creature of ebullient hope. Even in a hopeless situation –and this had never been anything other than hopeless– she seemed more likely to do something insane than just to despair.

Homura sat out the first lesson, then asked Saotome-sensei whether Madoka had called in sick.

She hadn't. Homura hurried down the corridor and caught up with Madoka's friend, Hitomi. She was walking next to a spindly boy with silver brown hair, and looked quizzically at Homura.

"She and Sayaka always walk with me to school," she said. "But they didn't show up today. Well, Sayaka hasn't been around much at all lately, but I was expecting Madoka to be there."

"Thank you, Hitomi-san." She didn't tell her about Sayaka. It would be easier for her.

* * *

On Madoka's way to the station, it felt as if every person she met would recognize her and drag her back to school, but that was a stupid idea. It was the fear talking –Junko would have told her that– and she had much worse things to be afraid of.

As she walked along the rushing main road towards the station building on her left, she felt the chill of the familiar shadow.

An Esuriens shaped like a giant bird of prey sat at the edge of a roof. Its head –just a huge bold beak– followed the motions of the cars down below.

Madoka spun into her dress and jogged closer. The Esuriens shrugged its wings that were great folded sheets of skin, like those of a bat or a pteranodon. She had never killed a full-grown Esuriens on her own, she'd always had Sayaka or Mami with her, but what did that matter now?

One couldn't die more than once.

She pulled back the bowstring, aimed at the creature's body and let go. She couldn't see whether it had caused any serious injury, but the Esuriens flapped up and opened its beak as if it were screeching. Arrows were something different from the kind of weapons that hewed or exploded.

One couldn't just cut off parts with them until the creature wasn't able to survive. The way Sayaka had fought. One had to find the right spot.

The Esuriens turned its head and launched itself into the air. Madoka got another shot in while it glided. It didn't slow down and got ready to dive, but it could only see her from above. Madoka rushed a few steps and dove into a portico. She waited and heard the flapping of heavy wings, but the Esuriens never landed.

She crept to the edge of the portico roof and scanned the sky. The Esuriens circled above the houses, and she stepped back. When it flew away from her, she shot it again. The Esuriens thrashed in the air. Madoka bit her tongue as the bird fell towards the traffic, but it dissolved into light before it hit the cars.

She felt the bright rush of triumph, even though it didn't matter any more. It stayed with her as she went through the train station.

She had no goal. She chose the train line heading east, just because the towns in that direction looked smaller and sparser on the pastel colored maps.

The train wouldn't leave for twenty minutes. She could have made the previous one if she hadn't fought the Esuriens.

Madoka pulled her shoulders up and made her way through the crowd.

The paranoia returned. She had to force herself to hold her gaze straight ahead and not look up at the adults moving around her. If just one of them recognized her and noticed that she was supposed to be in school... but they weren't seeing her, were they? They saw a fat girl.

She bought a bento box and some sweets at the news agent's. People in the queue glared at her, of course. Buying food was only okay for thin people.

In the waiting lounge, she found a seat that was almost hidden behind a lush potted plant. The train rolled in, at last. She forced herself not to push to get on board, but other passengers looked at her anyway.

* * *

Among those getting off were another rotund girl, with long tan hair streaming down the side of her head in a ponytail. Her turquoise eyes were large strangely clear.

She stepped from the train, the other passengers jostling her firm-fleshed shoulders and sides. She was used to it. As she walked through the cool station hall, her gaze fastened on a certain, short, fat girl with pale pink twin-tails. She immediately knew who she was, but why was she in her Cibus attire?

Mikuni Oriko's gaze swept the station, immaculate white flagstones and lush potted plants. If there were Esurientes here, she would have known.

* * *

Madoka glanced along the stream of passengers coming off the train, and the other girl's eyes met hers. She couldn't tell whether this other girl was another Cibus or just normally fat. The girl was already walking ahead with the rest of the crowd, and the glimpse had been too quick for her to tell. If she was a Cibus, Madoka should have been relieved: that meant there would be someone in the city to fight the Esurientes now that she and her friends were gone. But she was going to attract more Esurientes here – could one even say that Cibi were protectors, when the monsters they fought were attracted by them in the first place?

She might just have been an ordinary girl. Either way, she was already out of Madoka's sight.

* * *

When the first break came around, Homura walked from the school grounds. A few students might have seen her, but nobody cared enough to shout.

She reached Madoka's apartment building and pressed the buzzer.

" _Yeah, hello?_ " said a man's friendly voice.

"Is Kaname Madoka there?" Homura said.

" _Huh, Madoka?_ " Madoka's father replied. " _Of course not, she went to school an hour ago. May I_ _ask who you are?_ "

Homura let go of the button.

The immediate conclusion was that Madoka had skipped class to go hunting, the way Sayaka had done. Was that likely? Homura had never known Madoka to fight alone, neither recently nor in... that other time. Still, she was not certain how well she knew Madoka. The girl had just lost her friend, and that could shatter anyone's mental structures.

 _I could have helped her more._

So say that Madoka was wandering the streets of Mitakihara. She might not be hunting, but she was unlikely to be suicidal. If an Esuriens appeared, she would defend herself. Or else she might have left town. Was that likely? Perhaps the two options were equally probable. What were Homura's options? Just wander around the streets and keep an eye out for Esurientes that might lead her to Madoka? She and Madoka were the only Cibi left in the city now.

As she walked on, almost on cue a grey shadow spread across the sky between the houses.

An Esuriens lumbered towards her, fast for its size. Perhaps if she tarried a while longer, Madoka would spot it – no, other girls had died that way. Homura pulled her gun and held time in check as she planted a row of bullets in the Esuriens. She started time again. Pale blood started from the bullet holes. It died, if that word was even appropriate for an almost non-sentient machine – at any rate, it was destroyed. The street was still deserted.

Madoka would not have to save her again.

* * *

The sleepers clacked away beneath the bullet train. Madoka hadn't taken the train many times, and barely ever alone. She had a compartment to herself, as well. She could watch the landscape flying past outside the large clean windows and not think for a moment, as if she were going on an outing. An attendant rolled the refreshments trolley past her, and she thought about buying a barley sugar sweet, the kind Junko had bought for her and Tatsuya when they were going to see their grandmother, but she had to be careful with her money.

She glanced at the empty seat opposite. She didn't want Kyubey to read her thoughts now – and now her thought had just brushed him. That might be enough to summon him. She dug her nails into her palms and concentrated on watching the landscape rolling by outside the window, a movie strip with no dialogue or plot. After a few minutes, her heart slowed down and her brain became as wordless as the view.

Asunaro East was the final stop, the outskirts of the city. This station was smaller than Mitakihara Central Station, just a narrow lacquer roofed building between two platforms. The building hosted the ticket office and a coffee shop.

Madoka walked to the edge of the platform. It was just past twelve o'clock, but there was a light film of clouds across the sky, softening the light and making it seem later. It was easy to see past the toy small suburban houses and shopping centres, where bright green fields lay. There would still be people out there, farmers and the like, who might be put in danger by her presence. But if she walked far enough from the city, she would eventually get to some wilderness with no other humans.

She looked back and saw a mother and her daughter staring at her. They weren't looking at the fat; they seemed afraid. Perhaps she had walked to the edge like someone who was thinking about throwing herself off.

Now that the thought had entered her mind, she realized that her body was differently balanced now, harder to control. She stumbled back.

She still hadn't eaten. She found a bench and sat down to eat her bento, and never felt what it tasted like.

She set out after throwing the box out. She might have been stronger than in her old life, but her legs felt soft and out of practice from sitting for so long. After a while it passed. The air was warm and clammy, but tasted purer than in Mitakihara, and walking made her feel better. As long as her legs moved, as long as she kept that rhythm, her body functioned and she didn't have to think.

Three girls came down the street towards her, walking shoulder to shoulder, shopping bags swinging. One had nearly yellow hair in a shiny bob. Another had sleek, straight, dark-blue hair with two white streaks that resembled oni horns. Her jaws were set and she didn't chant along with the other two. The middle girl was smaller than the others, with large eyes and boyishly short dark hair that made her look a lot younger than the others. All three had an expansive, dense kind of fatness, the shape of Cibi. It couldn't be a coincidence, not three of them together.

Madoka stepped off the sidewalk to get past them –it would look natural, they were blocking the sidewalk walking like that– but the nervous gaze of the short haired dark girl brushed hers.

Madoka got out in the street and ran past the Cibi. A driver swerved around her and leant on his horn. She had an attack of nausea when she realized that she could have been hit. A moment later, the terror was gone. Would it have mattered if she had?

Perhaps one of the Cibi called out for her, but she slipped into a side street and no one followed her.

She wandered onward. The city shrunk down and became sparser around her. Her legs were tired, but that didn't matter any more. Her mind would drive her on. The tiredness made her slower, but she had time.

If there were Cibi here, perhaps there was no point in trying to attract the Esurientes. They would have plenty of prey in here. A few of them would still be drawn to her out here. It wouldn't be enough, would it? There would still be thousands left. The despair made it hard to breathe, as if it were something thick and fibrous inside her. She didn't try to counter it.

Up ahead, she could see the last rows of houses, and then the road winding out between the fields.

* * *

Homura had walked many of the deserted streets when she stopped, one hand on a stucco façade.

 _Kyubey_ , she said in her mind. _Tell me where Madoka is._

She and Kyubey had long been enemies –since the first time she died– but this time she believed that she had an advantage on him.

Kyubey did not bother to manifest as anything more than a voice in her head.

 _You want my help, Homura? Does that mean that you want to declare a truce?_

Her knuckles whitened on the wall.

 _I believe she is planning something foolish, she told him. If I can stop her, it would be in both our interests._

Kyubey did not respond. It was impossible to tell whether he was still there, but he didn't speak again.

Homura remained there, almost slumped, hair hanging forward and hiding her face. Her breath sounded ragged.

Kyubey was not worried about Madoka, or not worried enough to require Homura's help. Perhaps that meant that Madoka was in no danger – no. If she were all right, she wouldn't have skipped class; Homura had never known her to break a rule. That had to mean that whatever Madoka was doing, it had Kyubey's blessing.

No help from that quarter. Homura let time slide to a halt and walked on.

She started by searching the landmarks and cafés where Madoka had liked to hang out – _in the other timelines, where she was dead_ – but she was never there. Could she be hiding? It seemed unlikely.

Once she had exhausted the places she knew, she set off down one street, then another. She would have been a transparent blur zipping at right angles between the façades, if anyone had been able to see her at all.

Was she not in Mitakihara, then?

She had searched Mitakihara long enough: scanning the landmarks where Madoka used to hang out with her friends, looking for her in cafés and snack bars. It seemed like whatever she was planning, she had to do it outside of Mitakihara. In some great city? Homura thought of bombs, of destruction, but she didn't think that Madoka would try to take other people with her, even in despair.

* * *

Oriko felt a vision coming on. She couldn't prevent or control it, any more than she could have a drug-induced hallucination. All she could do was stand still, try not to lose her balance, and watch it unfold until it passed.

An open field. It felt like she had watched it for ages: the visions always took their own time.

The pink-haired Cibus from the station, and another. They were locked in battle, but more Esurientes surrounded them, too many for them to handle, waiting for their meal.

Reality flickered back, in time for her to see a black-haired Cibus passing her on the pavement. There was no doubt that it was the other girl from the vision. She always knew.

She lost no time in pulling out her cell phone and dialing a number as she followed the Cibus at a safe distance. The other girl didn't look around.

* * *

As Homura asked about Madoka at the station's ticket office, she could feel people's looks on her. Not that they concerned her.

It did not take long; one of the attendants remembered the obese schoolgirl with pink pigtails.

"We need a reason to hand out information about other passengers," the woman said, still sounding as nice as possible.

"I am her sister," Homura said. "She ran away from home. I think she is in trouble."

The attendant looked concerned – she'd gone too far. Homura raised a pale, meaty hand.

"Please, don't call the police. She'll run. I want to try to talk her back first. If that doesn't work, I'll contact the police myself."

The attendant smiled at her. Homura bought a ticket to Asunaro and got in the train.

Inside, the air was stuffy, and fear began to contract her throat and heart. The journey would take a little more than two hours. She'd lost time in Mitakihara, and she was going to lose more time like this. Stopping time wouldn't be any use, it would affect the train as well. She might not even be able to stop time for as long as she would need.

The fear served no purpose now, it couldn't make the train go faster. She switched it off.

It felt as if she would know if anything happened to Madoka.

Little did she notice another Cibus in the same car with her.

* * *

The fields thinned out, ending in ditches and electrified fences. Beyond was what looked like an old airfield, tarmac cracked by weeds and roots, then the dark edge of the forest. There was no way she could force her body to take her any further, and she wanted to stay out of the forest.

She needed a clear view. She sat down on the short grass at the edge of the tarmac. It would stain her skirt, but that didn't matter now.

And if somebody came by and saw her? She hoped they would, she wanted them to drag her back to safety. There was no safety. Whatever was going to happen tonight would have happened at some other point.

She changed. Her outfit was pink and lacy and showed so much of her shoulders and thighs. She looked like a pig, like some animal that had been bred to give more meat.

Cultivate the despair. Let it fester. She thought about Cibus flesh rotten with chemicals, its juices running down into the esophagi of Esurientes and kickstarting their reproduction, as if she could do this just by squicking herself out. She needed to despair. How could you do that and hope to win at the same time? If she felt the beginnings of the change, the hope might toss her back over the line to humanity.

She jolted. But she had thought it, and Kyubey still hadn't shown up. Despair. Perhaps no Esurientes would come. Why would they? There were plenty of Cibi in the city, she wouldn't be enough to draw them out here. They were made from humans. She looked around again. By far the most of them would appear in populated areas.

Perhaps she would get one. One would be no use, she would more than likely be able to kill it the normal way. And if there were more, what would happen?

She looked to the horizon, but it was still empty.

* * *

Homura stepped off the train at Asunaro East Station. She remained on the platform for a moment, scanning the street-grid below her in every direction, as if she was going to spot Madoka from here. As if it was going to be that easy.

She turned away. As she jogged towards the exit, she spotted a station attendant, keeping watch at the platform edge.

"Excuse me, sir, have you seen a girl about my age..."

He didn't recognize Madoka's description. She spoke to another attendant. He was no more help, and _she didn't have time_.

She had time.

She froze the flow around her again, but she still hurried as she scoured the motionless streets. Only minutes had passed –in the real world– by the time she got to the edge of the suburbs. An odd formation of shadows or clouds was gathering in the sky on the horizon.

Whatever else was at the end of her journey, she couldn't turn back as long as Madoka was there. She set out.

* * *

Oriko spotted the three Cibi stopping outside the cast iron gate of a Western-style mansion, as delicate and fine of outline as a cake. She had to draw a breath and brace herself, but there was no time to lose. One of them was already unlocking the gate.

"Excuse me?" She looked down at the road, not at their faces. "You three are Cibi, are you not?"

"I'm guessing you're one, too," the black-haired girl said. "Is that right? I'm Michiru, and these are my friends Umika and Kaoru."

There was no time to beat around the bush.

"My name is Mikuni Oriko," Oriko said. "I have sensed two others, in this area. They face far more Esurientes than they will be able to handle."

The slap of running footsteps on the pavement made her turn her head. Oriko's friend had caught up with her.

The Asunaro girls were staring at her, with her asymmetric clothing and flailing running style. She hurtled down the street like a cannonball – comical, perhaps, if you didn't know about her power of time dilation and the fact that she might have been running like that all the way from the train station.

She slowed down in front of them, spiky brown hair flying.

"Did I keep ya waiting?" she panted, catching her breath.

"It's all right, Kirika," said Oriko. "There is still time. I know where they are headed." She turned to Michiru. "Do you know of any other Cibi in this region? Ones whom we could perhaps enlist?"

"You're in luck, lady," said the blonde, Kaoru. "We're part of a team of seven... the Pleiades Saints, we're called."

"I'll see if I can enlist Satomi and Mirai," said the bespectacled girl, Umika. "Michiru, Kaoru, contact Niko and Saki."

* * *

The hours went by. More than anything, she felt boredom. She had the bag of sweets left, but no real food. The hunger would come, then the pinching stomachache, then the nausea. She didn't have anything to make camp with, not even a blanket. She lay on her back on the grass, but the ground bruised her thighs and shoulder blades.

Perhaps not all humans who were overcome with despair could become Esurientes. None of her friends had while they were being eaten. Perhaps in Mami's or Kyoko's cases it had been too quick for them to realize that they were going to die, but Sayaka... Even then, perhaps Cibi couldn't turn into Esurientes. They weren't human any more.

She was getting hungry. If anything was changing in her body, when would she be able to tell?

How could one tell when it was hopeless?

It felt like she'd gone to sleep, because she jolted the way one does when they wake up from a brief sliver of a dream. The sky was nearly dark. It had gotten cold enough to give her goosebumps. And now a faint, faint shudder in the ground, like the first hint of danger in a kaiju movie.

She jerked upright. The tall silhouettes of Esurientes appeared on the horizon all the way around her. She counted four, five, and then it didn't matter: even two would be able to take her out together. They were still too distant to be smelled, all she could feel was the slight vibration. If she ran now... she looked around, but one of them poked up over the treetops, a geometrical tower that did not even seem alive except that it moved. She still wanted to run. She was going to die.

Even if she succeeded, it wouldn't be her.

She straightened her back and reached for her bow and quiver. That wasn't the right way. Her hand shook, but she unstrapped the quiver and let it fall. The bow joined it.

She was so tiny before them. She didn't look up at them. At least she didn't have to see them. Her body was weak and ill and she couldn't feel a change. For a moment, her mind filled up with an image, insanely bright, of Tatsuya playing on the living room floor.

There was a wet tearing sound. It made her gaze jerk up against her will. Blood spouted from a wound through the Esuriens in front of her. It crashed and flopped to the ground, and behind it she saw Homura, gun still raised.

" _Madoka!_ " she shouted. " _Run now!_ "

If Homura was here, then it was for nothing. There were too many. They would just eat her too.

She shot another Esuriens, just a towering mess of tentacles. The shot slashed open a bleeding wound, but it kept approaching. Perhaps it didn't have any centralized nervous system for her to take out. She fired again, and that was why she didn't look at Madoka until she heard her scream.

One of the Esurientes had gotten to her.

" _Run!_ " Homura yelled, but perhaps she couldn't hear.

The Esurientes were a living wall around them. It was getting dark. Homura spent several moments of despair trying to locate Madoka – perhaps she was only injured, perhaps Homura would have time to drag her away from here and to a place where she could get help.

A claw swiped at her head. It was pure instinct that made her dodge out of the way, but she stumbled and knocked her knee against something hard. Chilly pain spread down her leg, and _she didn't have time_. Madoka screamed again. This time it sounded like pain.

But she didn't have to do it like this, did she? She could have all the time she wanted.

Homura reached into that hidden place in her mind and wrenched. The outlines of the Esurientes froze against the brighter sky, and she was able to draw breath again. Madoka was silent – of course, she was stuck outside time with the monsters. The important thing was that she was safe for the moment, removed from injuries or pain.

Homura hurried through a jungle of gigantic feet and hooves, looking left and right for a glimpse of pink.

Then time moved again. She felt it, as if a veil had been pulled from the world, even before she heard the earthshaking tramp of the giants and, _oh please no_ , Madoka's scream. She had used up the time she had. The sand had trickled from the hourglass.

Perhaps she screamed then, too. She gazed around for Madoka and saw her vanishing upwards in the claws of a spindly and colorless Esuriens. She turned her gun on it, but the other Esurientes had already closed in on them. She felt their presence almost on her skin.

Even if she was able to kill Madoka's captor, they might not make it out of this.

Her emotions were beginning to slip away. If she and Madoka died here, she would have another chance. The only thing left to fear was pain.

She fired at the Esuriens. The bullet opened a hole in its narrow torso, but the Esuriens did not falter. She fired at its arm and saw blood dripping from the wound, but the hand clutching Madoka continued its ascent. It was too late. If she made it drop Madoka now, the fall might kill her. She would die anyway.

The Esuriens stuck Madoka halfway into its maw, head first. Its teeth closed around her waist, cutting through her thick abdomen. The Esuriens savoured it for as long as possible, sucking on her body like a lollipop, making her brittle little bones move and crackle. Surely she was dead by now. Surely she had died the moment its jaws snapped her apart. Homura heard the sounds, even though it should have been been impossible.

She heard the louder pop of Madoka's skull. The Esuriens let her broken carcass slide down its throat. She was gone.

She had failed again. At least it had been over quickly.

A towering Esuriens, one that resembled a tyrannosaurus or a dragon, swiped at Homura. She whirled her gun upward and fired. Blood exploded out of its hand, but the bony ruin was still able to grab her. Its fingers crushed her arms against her torso. It lifted her towards its face, and its face was just a braided mess of teeth.

She fired her gun again, squashed against her side. She couldn't even tell whether the shot hit anything.

In her last moments, terror was replaced with despair. She was going to die like this. It was going to get to her before she could go back to that morning.

 _I prepared so much, and yet I couldn't win..._

But then, she had gone through the cycle so many times. Did she have a chance to save Madoka? Could she even stand to repeat the cycle again?

One row of teeth opened. The Esuriens' jaws locked around her arm and tore it out of its socket. She saw the blood gush, but she didn't feel any pain yet.

 _This is the end..._

The Esuriens bit into her leg and pulled. She heard the bone crack loose from her pelvis.

 _Madoka, I couldn't save you..._

It stuck the rest of her into the darkness of its mouth. It was almost over now.

She had only one thought left before its teeth clamped down onto her skull.

 _I'm sorry..._

* * *

Only moments later had Oriko and Kirika arrived, backed by all seven of the Pleiades Saints.

Oriko stopped, sensing the Asunaro girls spreading out in formation behind her. The Esurientes turned and began lumbering towards them, a massive horde. She knew, now. Her gift was that she always knew.

"We've come too late," she said. Her voice was almost devoid of emotion.

"Damn!" Kirika said. "Well, might as well fight them anyway."

Kirika was able to be so enthusiastic, even here. It gave Oriko some strength, if not enough to make her smile.

Oriko transformed, forming a white satin dress that cascaded down over her expanses of heavy flesh. Behind her, explosions of light split the darkness as the others joined her in changing.

They advanced on the Esurientes, ready to take out as many as they could reach.

* * *

Although Madoka had succumbed, research would finally begin to take place concerning Cibi and Esurientes. Following his appointment with Madoka, Dr. Yashima was the first to confirm what had once been rumors of girls gaining weight instantly and vanishing without a trace soon afterwards. Normally, the Incubators would take measures to ensure that their secrets remained between them and the Cibi. Certain laypeople did know about the Esurientes and Incubators, and what the Cibi really were, but the Incubators would take steps, such as cancelling people's memories, when it mattered. As versatile as the Incubators were, however, they could not override the wishes of those who made contracts with them.

* * *

 **Closing notes:** I am specifically hoping that this fic spins off as many different stories as possible with the same concepts in place. If anyone would like to write about other characters in the franchise, I have a file dealing with everyone in the franchise to date, which I would be glad to share with anyone who PMs me.

Let me mention, though, that **Cibi cannot become Esurientes**. The author of this fic originally had Madoka become one, but I vetoed that, because the whole point of this story, both in-story and out of, is that they get eaten. Even in-story, for any to become Esurientes would undermine their purpose in the system, which is for the hormones in their bodies to trigger the chemical reactions that allow Esurientes to reproduce and give off the energy that Incubators seek for the universe.


	5. Dessert

Thanks to Qinlongfei's review and some discussion with Qin himself and a friend of mine, I have come to realize that Homura's character should logically be different from canon, and Cibi should be better able to cooperate with one another instead of fighting for territory, due to a lack of Grief Seeds in existence. For the extents I had analyzed other installments of the franchise, the timelines showcased in the anime's 10th episode are a major thing I had overlooked while keeping basic facts on mind such as other characters' personalities, relationships, and backstories.

For the time being, we can call this fic the first draft of the story. I will likely start it over myself at some point, possibly when Wraith Arc gets released here (if not earlier on). Right now, though, I would like to write about other characters in the franchise, but if anyone can point out anything else wrong with this fic, I would greatly appreciate it.

In any case, enjoy the finale!

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 **Epilogue: Dessert**

The mornings were the worst part.

Once Hitomi was in school, the classes helped distracting her, but she had to walk there alone. The last few days Kyosuke had been off sick. Hitomi had phoned him, but his mother had said that he would be fine, he was just a bit weak. He still needed to recover from the accident.

He and Sayaka had been very close friends.

Madoka and Sayaka had just disappeared, they weren't dead. They might still show up at any moment, healthy as ever, but the days went by and she realised she couldn't force herself to hope any more. Hope was starting to hurt.

Early on, there'd been brief times when she'd thought about going out after school to search for them, but she didn't like leaving the house any more. After Sayaka and Madoka had vanished, it felt like nobody else she knew was safe. It didn't make sense, but the fear didn't go away. Big holes had opened in the street underneath her, waiting for someone else to swallow.

She tried to spend as much time as possible with her family or Kyosuke, as if she could keep them safe as long as they were within sight. School was several hours when she was unable to see her friends' families. She wouldn't know whether they were safe until she got home.

And if something did happen and she was there, what could she do?

The spring sun was warm on her skin and hair. She was almost at the crossing where they'd used to meet up. For a moment it felt as if the last weeks had been a dream and the girls were going to be waiting for her, but the street was empty.

The usual guilt was like a shard of glass stuck under her skin: she should have paid more attention to Madoka when she was down or upset, she should have given up on Kyosuke. She would give up on Kyosuke, if that would bring Sayaka back.

A movement made her turn around, but it wasn't a person. A sleek animal sat on a garden wall. At first she thought it was a cat, but its ears were different, long and surrounded by thin hovering hoops. A plume like tail swept back and forth underneath it.

It spoke.

"Shizuki Hitomi."

She jerked to a stop. The creature continued.

"Do you want to protect them?"


End file.
